I just read a great post over at Liz Strauss’ site, called Power of a Voice on the Telephone. The post raised an interesting question …. “Would you rather be phoned…emailed … face to faced … or snail mailed?
In a story about what she learned from the black box, during her work with a company just outside of
Liz shared … “Because of my circumstances, I attended two executive meetings each month via telephone — a black box on the table. I’d say hello to the group. They’d place the food of the day near the phone, and the meeting would start. They would forget I was there. I got to be the proverbial fly on the wall.”
Then she added three things that happened over a telephone. According to Liz …
1.Attending meetings over a telephone can raise concentration level. It was almost like eavesdropping. I was less inclined to speak.
2. It required crossing a barrier, because she had to feel strongly in order to add any opinion.
3. She listened more intently, just to imagine what was happening.
Some people may feel that you lose more when you lose the visual, through telephones. She also learned to focus, cross barriers and to listen more. In Liz’ case she gained, where others might complain about the loss of visual. How about you?
In similar ways, people tell me that you lose body language in email communications. Not so for me though. Email happens to be my favorite communication method ... and I see tone as the magic body language of emails.
What advantages do you see in your favorite method of communication?
You've put a lovely twist on your take about tone :). Liz's post and your own show that it's how you approach your chosen method that is the most critical thing of all.
I prefer to deal with everything that is relatively routine by email. Email can be a great relationship builder if you use it carefully. The phone is fine when I need to pick up on nuances. I love talking on the 'phone about matters that enthuse me, but that's not the point.
I've discovered that chat is also excellent. After we got the preliminaries out of the way, most of my conversation with my website designer (who I've never met) were by chat. I had to be very conscious about the impact of my words, avoid ambiguous phrases and remain curious throughout the conversations.
Posted by: Galba Bright | January 26, 2007 9:56 AM | Permalink to Comment