Skipp Merchant
770-967-3815
Have you ever searched your email inbox and had to spend extra time reading through emails because many of the subject lines were all identical while all of the emails were really about different topics? That’s like trying to find the ball in a shell game! One reason for this confusion is because people will for their own convenience sake find one of your recent emails and hit “Reply”. It doesn’t seem to matter to them if they pick your email about “Project #25” or your email about the monthly meeting, they just pick an email and start typing. You will know this has happened to you when you find the budget data that you’ve been searching for in an email with a subject line about vacation days.
“LEAN” is a nickname for the Toyota Production System, and the LEAN process improvement methodology focuses on eliminating the steps in a process that do not add value. These non-value-added steps are viewed as waste that is to be taken out of the process in much the same way a full trash can is viewed in a kitchen. LEAN defines waiting as one of the seven forms of process waste that cause a process to be inefficient. In the automobile assembly process, waiting on a missing assembly part is a form of waste that needs to be removed from the assembly process.
Let’s say that you’re a good communicator and are also proactive so you send an email with the subject line “Project #5: Deployment date is still on track for January 13.” Later, you receive an email reply inquiring if the automated workflow functionality part of Project #5 will be included in the deployment. The reply to that email should have the subject line changed to something like “Project #5: Workflow Functionality.” This subject line change will provide specific information that will make a future search for this email more efficient.
Who knows… it may be you that is doing the searching.
Respecting Others
You may not care about LEAN or maybe you do not have confidence in process improvement initiatives, but think about this…. Many companies hold “Respecting Others” as a core value. People often recognize that being to work on time as a good value but few people stop to think that causing a coworker to waste their time is not being respectful to their coworker. Taking your time to update the subject line when you reply to an email will help your coworkers save time and is being respectful of their time. You will be making their process of searching through the emails that you sent more efficient.
$ $ $ — The productivity lost when 60 employees each waste 1 minute is the average of what they all make for an hour — $ $ $
From the money perspective, lost productivity due to inaccurate subject lines is very real when you consider that many companies have thousands of employees that each are caused to waste several minutes each day when searching for emails.
Implement LEAN Subject Lines for Yourself
Emails with inaccurate subject lines conveys three messages.
1} One message is the intended communication in the email body.
2} The second conveyance is what the recipient thinks about your organizational and communication skills.
3} The third message conveys degree to which you consider others and the future need of others to quickly find your emails.
Having to wait on something to complete a process is a form of process waste that exist in inefficient processes. You may not be passionate about improving processes like I am, but remember to do right by your coworker and put accurate information in the subject line when you reply to their emails. Many leaders think that a big process improvement roll-out and banners with carefully worded slogans improve processes. Maybe so, but don’t wait for the roll-out. Start improving the communication process today and be sure that your replies to emails have carefully worded subject lines.
Please feel free to let me know your opinion about this article, and if you like it. Thanks.
© Leansoftlytics 2024 All rights reserved