“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war”

- Churchill

Recently it’s become apparent that in this day and age, we are losing our voice, and opting for instant messages, tweets and texts. This is, of course, moving with the times, and a way in which most of us are comfortable expressing our feelings and opinions.

But surely there comes a time when verbal communication is the only acceptable method? For example, if a quick decision is needed about a piece of work, a 2 minute phone call can solve the problem instead of waiting an hour for an email reply. Even if the phone call ends with “Can you pop this in an email for confirmation” to cover your ass, it has still solved the problem in minimal time (Unless of course your client can talk for Britain, in which case cross your fingers and hope for voice mail!)

I’ve noticed this a lot more over the past couple of weeks, where I’ve seen (and been a culprit of myself) people firing off emails / IM’s / Tweets to confirm vital information, or air their opinions about a specific subject. In fact, more recently, I’ve watched an entire conversation get completely convoluted – because it was too hard to keep up with what was being said visually. To be honest, it drove me insane at the time!

So why don’t we pick up the phone anymore, or get out of our chairs and communicate with each other face-to-face? Is it laziness? Or are we all becoming so attached to our PCs (or phones) that we just can’t bare to use any other form? Maybe its to avoid the uncomfortable scenario that is brewing, or just to delay the inevitable (It’d be good to see how many people are actually “Away” or “Offline”)!

One theory of mine is that we live in such an intense blame culture, we always need a record of what was said, by who, what time, in what context, and what the outcome was. Just *in case* something goes wrong. (I don’t disagree with having a record of communication, but sometimes its worth the risk to get things sorted quickly). It’s also far to easy to CC / BCC in a Director / Manager etc who would not normally be required in a situation, to escalate a scenario when it isn’t required. Always think, “would I ask that person to sit in on a conference call to discuss the situation?” If the answer is “No”, remove that CC!

Of course, this is just my opinion (and certainly not an analysis of the way things are carried out in my place of work. This is based on my personal opinions and experiences, and feedback from friends who encounter similar issues!)

Personally, I’d opt for a quick call to clear the air and solve problems instead of a long winded email or convoluted IM chat.

That is all, my rant is over