That meeting could have been an email!

How often do you walk out of a meeting (or close your Zoom window) and say to yourself, "That could have been an email!"? We've all said it. Some of us say it a lot! But is it true?

The problem is, to make the meeting unnecessary, someone has to write a highly effective email. An email that will:

• be sent to everyone who needs it (and nobody who doesn't)
• be read by everyone
• have a clear purpose
• contain enough information, and explain it well enough, that people understand what's happening
• answer readers' most likely questions to avoid creating a long thread of clarifications
• tell people exactly what they need to do after reading it

It turns out, very few people are writing these highly effective emails. So when they try to send out an email instead of having a meeting, they end up needing a meeting to explain the email!

If you really want to cut back on meetings, you can't just whip off a quick email to your team. You need to plan what you're going to say, how you'll say it, and who will receive it.

Don't hit Send right away. Take your time. Do something else for a few minutes to clear your head. Read it over with fresh eyes to see whether it makes sense and includes all the information that should be there. Double-check who should be in the To list, and make sure you haven't accidentally left people off or clicked on the wrong person's name.

Email is still a big part of business communication. If your team isn't using it effectively, they're wasting each other's time.

If your team could use some help writing highly effective emails, book a one-hour online seminar and I'll save you all some time and hopefully cut down on those meetings!