Friday, February 17, 2006

Email is Cultural

Email is cultural! Who would think that such a ubiquitous tool would be cultural and have to make us think before we write!

Email is very cultural in relation to the address list. For example, in the United States an email may address an employee concern and sent to all employees. In some cultures, this is heresy. You address personal issues in a personal manner. That email is sent only to those people it applies to.

The chain of command is also important. In some cultures if the email is between two managers, you never send that email to other managers (especially higher-level managers).

I follow a few, simple rules when sending email.

  1. Review what you write. Make sure its says what you really mean to say.
  2. Be careful with humor. Jokes don't always work when written.
  3. Word choice is important. Many English words have more than one meaning. This is especially important if your email's readers are from other countries. Make sure your words mean what you really mean to say.
  4. Proofread. Think before you click the send button.
  5. Never write anything in an email that you don't want the whole world to read. Once you send an email, anyone of the email's recipients can forward that email to anyone. It may not be polite or proper, but it does happen.

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