Before sending an email with the purpose of collaboration, the author must ask themselves the following questions: Who am I writing the email to? What do I actually want to achieve? What tone should I use? Who should I CC and who should I BCC? Have I checked in the document I just edited? Should I include a link to the document in the DMS or should I send it as an attachment?
Long text, unclear statements and many unanswered questions: the recipients are itching to simply reply with "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read). Then there's a file with "extra copy" appended to the name. A colleague has also been forgotten; he was probably not on the distribution list yet. And now we find ourselves in the classic situation known as email collaboration. To put it bluntly, you could also call it the "microcosm of mail management".
It's no longer about the actual goal, working together bank data on a project, but about processing emails as efficiently as possible. People are happy to accept that important information and therefore knowledge gets stuck in mailboxes and is not communicated to the whole company. Email is also unsuitable for creative processes. There are more effective ways than discussions via "RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: ..."!
E-mail as a task distribution and blackmail tool
E-mail has drastically increased the speed of written communication in companies. Emails can be forwarded without much effort. Only rarely is it thought of informing the recipient whether the content is just for reference or whether it is a task being passed on. Confusion and chaos are inevitable.
It is not uncommon to hear in meetings: "What, this topic hasn't been addressed yet? I've already forwarded it to you all by email!" And as "proof" the email is sent again, of course with an even longer list of recipients. Someone will feel addressed, or maybe not.
comfort zone Outlook
Since email is the standard tool for communication in most companies, it is accepted by the majority of employees. It can be observed that many people open their email program first thing every day, because "that's where the work happens!" And you can't blame them for their behavior. But that also means that it is difficult to break out of this way of working.
There are many collaboration software manufacturers that send email digests of daily activities to inboxes. This at least ensures that the die-hard email fans are not cut off from the flow of information. On the other hand, this quickly reinforces the status quo based on the opinion "If I get everything by email, then I don't need to register on a platform!"