People aren’t born knowing this stuff, so you really do need to tell her.
#Firehose chat professional#
This would get everyone onboard with higher professional standards. If you have an HR person, ask them to announce the new communication norms for the whole office as well. I don’t know much about banking, but I imagine that being on top of compliance probably matters.Īfter your meeting, send her an email with the format you want-whether it is this one or another you prefer. Tell Mae that if she sends you a communication that doesn’t follow the ABC format, you will return it to her and ask her to format it properly if she wants you to pay attention to it. It works just as well for voicemails (who is still using voicemail?) and is excellent for texts and for Slack or Teams. I can tell you that it takes a great deal of time and focus to write this way, because it forces the sender, not the recipient, to do all the organizing of ideas and thinking. People use it mostly when they are sharing critical information that requires action from the recipient. Our company has been using this format since the book came out, and it really makes a difference. This ABC model comes from The Hamster Revolution by Mike Song, Tim Buress, and our own Vicki Halsey. Use bullet points, numbers, or section headings if very detailed. Clear, concise, with deadline.ī- Background: Purpose for action, context for request. Then request that any and all communications to you follow this format:Ī – Action: Exact action needed. Tell her you find her communications hard to follow and too time consuming to digest. Take Mae aside, making sure you have privacy and won’t be disturbed. You have every right to do so.īe kind, be gentle, be clear and direct. After all, you must rely on her for work product. Or you could act like the senior executive you are and make a request. That’s what most people do in “nice”-a.k.a. You could chicken out and talk to her boss. This is about your quality of life of work-and Mae’s ineffective behavior. Just because the culture of the organization is that no one gives anyone feedback doesn’t mean you can’t.
There is a joke around the branch that when you see an email from Mae, you can’t hit delete fast enough. It takes me way too long to hunt through her communications to figure out what I need to know and what I need to do. She works in compliance, so most of what she is doing is CYA stuff. We are all very “nice” around here and no one gives anyone feedback, so I don’t know what to do about this.Īll of Mae’s communications are delivered like a firehose of information: five-minute voicemails or three-page emails. One of our employees (I’ll call her Mae), who doesn’t report to me but on whom I rely on for several big deliverables on a regular basis, is driving me nuts. I am a senior executive at a fast-growing regional bank.
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