3 takeaways about how the Instant Messaging vs Email Battle is Shaping Workplaces
The modern business culture is becoming a more open and collaborative experience. The upcoming generation of workers is not only among one of the most educated, it is also one that favors transparent work duties, expressiveness, and above all, a collaborative work environment. This inclination towards teamwork has influenced subtle changes in communication preferences.
Email, once the digital language of the workplace, is steadily being replaced by instant messaging. This has not only created a more open exchange of ideas, but it has also led to a more dynamic and flexible workplace culture.
Here are a few ways that instant messaging is changing workplace culture and why it has become so prevalent.
1. More Transparent Team Collaboration
First and foremost, instant messaging allows your team to communicate more easily. Email isn’t difficult, but it has several flaws built into its overall design and the surrounding etiquette.
Because of this, it’s often inefficient for long discussions and large groups. Email tends to be either a one-on-one, back-and-forth form of communication, or several people talking around each other on a large email chain.
It’s often difficult to get the right message to the right person in large email chains, and more often than not, they become overly long and the entire point is buried in a string of replies. For any in-depth discussion involving more than two people, email quickly becomes unwieldy and inefficient.
Instant messaging easily facilitates a far shorter discussion with quicker back-and-forth replies. Also, people tend to be more off the cuff when they don’t have time overly think through their words, allowing for more original thought and honest viewpoints. Plus, chat rooms allow everyone to add their input. Because of this, their ideas and viewpoints are not lost in a reply chain.
2. Consolidate Viewpoints In Real Time with Better Brainstorming
As noted by PC World, instant messaging ;
“is conversational. Instant messaging has an immediate back-and-forth exchange that lets you collaborate in real-time.”
The value of this in brainstorming and corporate planning sessions is immeasurable. As noted above, IM exchanges tend to be shorter and less self-censored.
This lets your team bring together multiple ideas and viewpoints on everything from projects to planning sessions for new ideas.
3. An Improved Corporate Culture
The emerging generation of workers priz collaboration. This is a great advantage as the ability to work on a team is one of the most desirable aspects for any employee. Email can feel largely impersonal, and particularly because of the disconnect of an instantaneous response.
The younger generation of employees wants to feel like they’re a part of the team and their ideas are heard, acknowledged, and respected. Through the use of instant messaging, employees are able to more effectively communicate and thus form the types of bonds and camaraderie upon which all good teams are built.
Instant messaging communication and its associated socially powered collaboration platforms are changing the modern business world. By using IM, your employees not only communicate more efficiently and far more quickly, they also foster a corporate culture of open communication and idea sharing that can provide a key component in any healthy corporate culture.
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