You wouldnât send a coworker a memo via a carrier pigeon and likely donât use chalkboards or faxes anymore. As a whole, society understands and agrees that these forms of communication are antiquated and that there are better ways out there to collaborate. But what if some of the tools youâre using now are antiquated as well? Sure, maybe not message-in-a-bottle antiquated but antiquated in the way youâre using them.Â
Just because a tool aids in collaboration and just because youâve always used it, doesnât mean itâs actually the best solution for the job. Thatâs why weâre challenging common collaboration tools in our new series and helping you find better solutions to maximize collaborative synergy on your team. If you havenât yet, make sure to check out our articles on spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.
Todayâs topic: Email overload.
Yesâweâre going there.Â
In the United States, over 90% of adults are email users. Email is how we get our bills, itâs often how we make appointments, and itâs even sometimes how we receive holiday cards or party invites. But that doesnât mean itâs the perfect go-to solution for every collaborative scenario, especially in the workplace.Â
Limitations of email
Donât worryâweâre not about to suggest you get rid of email. Itâs an incredible tool for staying connected, and itâs nearly impossible to exist in modern society without it. But does it have limitations? We think so. Here are some of the email issues weâve found:Â
-
It creates information silos
Because emails are password-protected and generally owned and managed by one user, theyâre the perfect place for important information to die.Â
For documents, attachments, or context to be transferred to someone else in the event of adding a stakeholder or position turnover, a message has to be located somewhere in your mailbox by trying to remember keywords or subject lines. And if you can remember that (and if you even recall that the message exists in the first place) and itâs successfully forwarded to the recipient, it could still be undelivered. Maybe the recipientâs inbox is full, or maybe a slight typo sends it to the wrong individual without you ever knowing.
For teams to collaborate efficiently, they need easy access to important documents and knowledge to quickly bring others up to speed on a project or role.
-
Itâs susceptible to viruses or scams
Of course, no application or solution can avoid bugs altogether, and email has gotten better at detecting and auto-filtering spam messages, but itâs still impossible to guarantee message security in email.
Because anyone who gets your email address can reach you, and itâs not difficult to replicate email formats or writing styles, itâs simple for scammers to trick you into revealing personal or financial information. Just clicking on a link or button in an email message can install malicious software on your computer or even your whole company network. Even after it happens, users still may not know, because they often look like valid files or harmless documents on your computer.
-
Itâs easily cluttered
Execs receive an average of 120 emails dailyâand thatâs not accounting for personal email messages and subscriptions. And because it would be impossible to read every single one all the way through each day, it amounts to a lot of clutter. This makes it easy to overlook emails that are important, and crucial information and documents may get lost amidst the barrage of messages.
And remember those spam messages we already mentioned? Yeah, those donât help. A whopping 49% of emails sent worldwide are considered spam. Talk about email overload.
-
It offers no version control
When used to collaborate on a project, message threads can become long and cumbersome to scroll through. This, in and of itself, leads to miscommunication. Itâs difficult to track the progress of a conversation when you have to scroll through dozens of emails to do so. But if youâre working on a document or deliverable together, it only gets worse.
In this case, your only options are to copy and paste directly in the message or make an attachment. And itâs all too easy to accidentally upload an outdated attachment (or a wrong one altogether!), which stalls work, creates confusion, and wastes time and money.
Lucid solves email issues
Because everyone uses email, many teams donât even consider that there may be a better way. But Lucidâs dynamic capabilities make it a much better choice for team collaboration and working sessions. It solves all the email problems we currently face. Hereâs how:
