I bet you didn’t realize that you can have another personality. Or maybe two or three. But do not worry; you can make them go away by acknowledging this possibility and following a few simple guidelines. The “disease” you may have is Multiple Email Personality Disorder (MEPD) — you adopt another persona in your organization based on how some people perceive you through your email communications. Many people today end up with MEPD without realizing it, and it often shows up as a side effect of excessive email use. MEPD is obviously a fictional disease, but its side effects can be harmful.
Here is an example of how this can happen. You receive an email from someone in your organization describing a proposal for a new project. The person asks him if he agrees with the proposal and if he would be willing to participate in the project. You think the project is a great idea and you want to support it. Therefore, you would like additional details on the general plan and more detail on what is required of you. In addition, you would like to inform the person that they will need to submit a quote request and get approval before proceeding.
Sounds simple, right? It will simply send a response indicating these points.
Well, it turns out you were out of the office yesterday and you’re behind on your email. So he resorted to checking email on his PDA during one of his many meetings throughout the day and responded to as many as he could. There are so many in your inbox that you want to get your answers as quickly as possible.
Notice that the distribution list for this particular email has twelve people. Since you are only receiving clarification on the request, you would like to respond only to the original sender plus three of your staff who can help with the project. But since you are using your PDA, narrowing down the mailing list takes a long time. So you decide to hit the REPLY ALL button assuming that the eight people who don’t really need the information in your reply will just delete it. You want to get your response quickly to get to your other remaining emails, so you type the following on your PDA:
Wow! What are you asking for 4? Give me a plan: no resources or $$ without this.
The problem is that the person receiving your message (and some of the 8 of the other 11 on the mailing list) interpret your response as:
“Wow! How can you ask me for something like this? And you ask me without any detailed plan? You think I’m going to give you people or funding without a plan!?”
So instead of the caring, understanding, and helpful person that you really are, they see you as rude, terse, resilient, and judgmental.
This is a pretty extreme example, but I bet you’ve seen cases where something like this has happened in your organization. He has probably seen poorly written emails that were misinterpreted and received incorrect responses or emotional reactions. You’ve also probably seen emails like this with excessively long mailing lists. This multiplies the negative impact of the misspelled message as more people read it.
What are the causes of MEPD? They are generally associated with excessive use of email. Sending an email for something that needs to be handled with a conversation can often lead to misunderstandings. Not reading your email from the recipients’ perspective can make the message sound insensitive. Writing an email that is too short or cryptic can lead to significant misinterpretation. Even something as simple as not phrasing a request as a question or not including the word “please” can make people feel like you’re demanding, not asking.
If you are sending a message to someone you know well, a cryptic email may be fine, since the person will probably know how to “read”. But be careful, people tend to read emails from a negative rather than a positive perspective. Also, as the example demonstrates, the risk of contracting MEPDs is higher when using PDAs, as they make it difficult to write effective emails. You can think of it this way: if excessive email use is for MEPD like cigarette smoking is for lung cancer, then excessive email use via PDA it’s like smoking cigarettes without filters. Increases risk.
— WARNING: Excessive use of email, especially with PDAs, can be dangerous to your productivity! —
Here are some tips to help minimize the risk of emails being misinterpreted. Also, if you have any concerns that your email recipient may be misinterpreting your message, speak to them directly.
- With written communication, the verbal and visual elements used to help make a point are missing, and there is no immediate two-way clarification. Therefore, the ways in which words can be interpreted are much broader.
- Take the “worst case” perspective of the email reader and avoid any ambiguous language. Make sure requests aren’t misinterpreted as commands by writing them in the form of questions and using words like “please.”
- Due to the greater difficulty of composing messages on PDAs, please be very careful when using such devices. If you are not careful, the messages will end up short and excessively concise. These are often interpreted negatively in ways such as being demanding, uncooperative, judgmental, etc.
If you receive a “cryptic” message, please contact the sender for clarification before responding or jumping to conclusions.
- Instead of misinterpreting, take the time to understand what is actually being said. Answering or assuming an incorrect interpretation can cause even more problems.
- Due to the difficulty of typing with PDAs, messages sent from these devices run the risk of being too short.
Read your message from the recipients’ perspective before hitting the SEND button. Rewrite if necessary.
