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Video: Why e-mail messages start fights

March 20, 2009, 1:04 PM PDT

Only seven percent of what we say is conveyed through words. Tone and visual cues make up the other 93 percent. That is why email messages are so often misunderstood. Ed Muzio of Group Harmonics suggests using email only when you should: to convey facts and data, and when no emotion or sensitive issues are involved.

In the past 12 months alone, I’ve seen e-mails misconstrued and misinterpreted too many times to count, and then management ends up having to devote extra time to damage control for issues that shouldn’t have been issues in the first place. Muzio’s suggestions are right on the money. Check them out in this video whiteboard from TechRepublic’s sister site BNET.

October 20, 2008, 5:12 PM PDT | Length:00:03:01

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Edward Muzio: Hi, I am Edward Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics. I m going to tell you why email starts fights.
It happens all the time. It starts out as a simple bit of information, turns first into a discussion, then an argument. Finally, our inbox is full of emails back and forth. No one knows what is going on. It is not an accident. In the late 1960s a man named Dr. Albert Mehrabian did a study of how we communicate. He concluded that there are three different areas of communication where information is passed on.
The first is words. These are the words we use. The second is tone or the sound of our voice, and the third is visual--cues like how our face looks and how we are moving our body. Now, Dr. Mehrabian concluded in his research that the distribution of information looked like this.
The visual cues represent 55% of the information that gets transferred. The tone cues represent 38% of the information, and the words represent only 7% of the overall message. Now, since then, other people have argued over those exact percentages, but the message is the same. Think about a presentation you have seen that was memorable and good. You probably remember the overall message. That's the whole pie. You probably remember how the person looked, how they moved, what their energy was like. That's the visual and the tone, but I bet you couldn't write the script of exactly what they said. You don't remember the exact words. It is the smallest part of the information. That's the problem with email. Email is all about the words.
Let's say I sent you this email. The words are: I didn't say you have an attitude problem. What exactly do I mean? Is it I didn't say you have an attitude problem? Somebody else said it. Is it I didn't say YOU had an attitude problem? I meant your co‑worker. Or is it I didn't say you had an ATTITUDE problem? I meant you have a communication problem. The words aren't enough to communicate the message, and that is the problem with email. This is a terrible message to send in an email because it isn't clear what I mean.
What do you do about this? Well, the answer is simple. You use email only when you should. If you are talking about facts, if you are talking about data‑‑ when is the meeting? What are the directions to get there? What's our agenda? What's the new policy? Excellent for email but draw the line there.
When you get into emotional content, when you get into sensitive issues, do not let email be your answer. Stop it here and switch back over to in person or on the phone. Remember, if you get on the phone, you pick up tone again. You pick up 38% of the information. If you can get to the person in person, you get this 55% back as well. Don't make the mistake of using only 7% of the information only email to solve a complex issue. It won't work, and your email will start a fight.

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Good suggestions.

idamaeb@... 28th Mar 2009

Yes, I agree that it is VERY important to edit one's self. Short, uncomplicated sentences when possible. Delivering information in list format or bullets seems to be most effective in getting one's point across.

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Adding text markers

Jason Hiner 25th Mar 2009

I agree that adding text markers (bold, underline, emoticons, etc.) can add inflection to messages in text.

Think about how different a sentence will read with an exclamation point at the end verses a standard period.

Doing these types of things, again, raises the 5% in my opinion.

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The difference with Shakespeare is ...

Jason Hiner 25th Mar 2009

that he labored over every word for days and sometimes months in order to get it right. The words are constructed very carefully in order to give the exact meaning and the most power.

The more time you spend crafting a message, the more the power of that 5% rises, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, most people don't spend enough time crafting their e-mail messages, so I think the 5% is a little low but fairly close to accurate.

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