Think Like A Master Communicator
Internal communications can be hard - even when you’re a small company. Especially when email is so precarious.
Cases in point, just today:
- I was copied on an email from a broker to a client about a personal loan. I had no business being copied on that note, and have NO idea how it happened, but I didn’t read it (is that unusual?) and immediately deleted it.
- I copied and pasted a few email addresses from an internal email to a small group of people, and inadvertently cc:d someone outside the organization. Who knew kthomas was Kevin Thomas, not Karen Thomas? Neither Wes (in the first instance) nor I (in copying his email addressees) did.
The ONLY way - in a fast-paced, multiple email address world - to protect and control internal information is to have your internal constituents opt in to RSS feeds for collaborative environments.
The Problem:
I have five email addresses that I maintain. I’m probably a little unusual, but I’ll bet most people have at least two - one personal, one business - in each content record. Poor Wes, in using Outlook, probably entered “Thomas” into his Outlook “To:” file, and Kevin popped right up. God forbid he was on his PDA addressing the note. If he’s like me, and he didn’t have his glasses on, there was no hope for accuracy…
Email is prone to human error, and RSS is a defacto, double opt-in, secure way to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Enterprise-level, managed RSS systems are particularly secure, requiring user authentication from within a firewall.
We have no room for human error when the collective intelligence of well-written tools can protect us from ourselves. I’ve started recommending that clients use RSS systems - like that from one of my clients, Attensa - to collaborate and communicate updates internally. Email is simply too precarious, and too reliant on human accuracy, to protect internal IP.
My friend James Dellow invited me to get the word out about Enterprise RSS Day of Action, which is currently in planning stages. There’s an official WIKI here, and James posted on ChiefTech about it, with the notion of starting a discussion on practical implications of enterprise RSS adoption. I plan to be a vocal advocate.
My email experience today is just one matchstrike fueling the fire for the Enterprise RSS adoption.
