

Meeting, Phone call or Email? - uuilly

How do you guys decide whether to have a meeting, make a phone call or send an email?  I think the choice of communication method can make a big difference in how well and quickly problems are solved.  I realized today that I have no real method of deciding which one to use other than instinct.  
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uuilly
Here are some thoughts:

-How well do you know the person.

-How important is this task, decision or event?

-How complex is the task, decision or event?

Meeting<\---------------------------------------->Email

Don't know person well--------------------Know person well

Important---------------------------------Unimportant

Complex-----------------------------------Simple

If I don't know someone well they are more likely to misinterpret raw text
(flame wars are a good example.) If something is unimportant then it doesn't
matter if they misinterpret raw text. If something is simple then there is
less to misinterpret.

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donna
Email has worked best for me. Allows me to have documentation of the info we
all decide on. Too many times someone has mistaken or misheard the information
and then we end up starting all over.

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jpalacio486
I think it depends on the severity of the problem. If the problem is minor, an
email should suffice. If the problem is of medium severity, a phone call or a
conference call should be yield results. If the problem is very severe, it
would seem best to gather everyone for a meeting in order to brainstorm.

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DanielBMarkham
Good neetings are things you go into not knowing what the answer is -- they're
for synergy. Body language, group particpation, and consensus building are
important.

E-mail is for presenting an case, making a conclusion, and asking for
agreement. It's a longer format where you get a chance to speak in a one-way
fashion.

The phone is great for immediate decision-making: the server is down and I
need to know whether to ring the alarm bell or not. With the phone you can get
a lot out of voice inflection that you can't get with IM or email. In general,
written format is very tough to do humor, nuance, sarcasm, and negotiation.

BTW, the term "meeting" is way overrated. If you're doing work in a group, do
the work, whether it's at the water cooler, Starbucks, whatever. There's a
whole science involved in making a good meeting, but I'd just focus on the
work and make the communication format fit the goal. Use common sense. You
obviously can't make a marketing strategy using IM, email, or twitter, so some
kind of meeting/workgroup is in order. Likeise, if you've stopped five people
working to tell them the code just built, you need to do a little thinking
about choosing better formats.

