Hi everyone,
My introduction to this valuable conference is mailed at the same time as
this message.
I found following this thread (from half way through) very interesting. I
was about to post my first message this morning moving it towards the
difficulties that email sometimes generates because of the lack of
non-verbal information that leads to potentially major misunderstanding.
What do I see when I collect my mail, a number of messages tackling this
theme.
Email has a very valuable part to play in helping organisations to learn
because it has the benefits of speed of transmission, ease of getting to
large numbers quickly etc. That is very exciting. And there are the
problems that it is a different medium for communications in relation to
learning. Historically it has been used mainly for information. It is now
being used for feedback.
I can echo some of the messages picked up this morning
1. Don't take everything too seriously (difficult for people who do take
things seriously)
2. Things are often typed in haste will too little thought given to how they
might be received (ie using email as a rapid communications media!!)
3. How do we learn from threads and show others that we have learned from it
4. We typically don't talk as we would type!! I find the need to type
valuable in that it makes me consider more what I want to say, and know that
this will probably lead to the emotional content being removed, compared to a
voice to voice conversation, let alone a face to face conversation.
It seems to me that this conference could be, should be, somewhere where
these issues are explored. We find out some things that could usefully act as
guidelines.
I look forward to seeing this area of learning continue.
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Berkshire - UK
Harnessing change for business advantage
--tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>