Don’t send someone an email if you want them to do something

So said Bob Keiller the charismatic chief exec of Production Services Network at the recent Entrepreneurial Exchange “An evening with….” series.

Bob’s injunction to his 8,500 staff, in 20 countries, is that they need to ditch the keyboard, pick up the phone or get face to face. I nearly cheered.

The amount of collateral damage I see happening in companies due to badly communicated email is widespread. The email format just can’t cope with the demand for speed of communication and the unacknowledged need for great subltelty of language.

Better sticking to my own maxim….NEVER send an email if there is the slightest chance of misinterpreting an emotion either by my inadequacy of transmission or the failure of the recipient to get it.

Bob’s views struck me as down to earth and sensible as one might expect from ” a loon fae Abeirdein” or I suppose with deference to Bob’s Border roots, a cheery chappy from Jedburgh. However Bob is evangelistic about communicating with his people – by any and all means.

And, there is more to Bob’s injunction. For those unaware of Bob and his remarkable story go to www.psnworld.com. There you will see some standard looking things including “Our Core Values”, seven of them: Health and Safety, People, Innovation, Relationships, Financial responsibility, Localisation, Integrity. Well they seem like standard things – things we are supposed to write on our corporate statements.

The fact of the matter is that Bob and his team run the business with these values…….that is…..RUN THE BUSINESS.

Bob tells us that he has never communicated his chief exec’s message on anything other than these 7 values (that’s since 2004). Not all done face to face though with video and indeed email from time to time. Bob’s hard bitten FD relates that the most important thing the executive team at PSN did amidst one of the biggest levered buy outs in UK industry was to hammer out the values they would use to drive the business. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as it was only Bob’s unshakable conviction ( with no doubt a heavy dose of “come with me” leadership) that got them off doing the deal to consider waffly stuff as “our values”.

Once they are in place how do you keep them there?My view? Be very visible and accessible to the people of the business….get out there and keep hammering home the messages. This of course is plain good sense but every one of you is strapped for time and frequently getting in front of the people (in one’s, two’s or ten’s) is well nigh impossible.

So it started me thinking about how email might be used not to “get someone to do something” but to engage the heart and mind. Any good examples…….please let me know.

I found one the next week….it is from Allan Ross, MD of First Independent Finance, the fast growing source of asset finance. Allan and his leadership colleagues are using the strap line “From Good to Great” from the the eponymous book. In Good to Great Messages they are helping to focus the company on the core things that matter to FIF. An excerpt of Allan’s recent email follows. It was written on the eve of the descent into whatever district of bedlam we are now in due to bankers and sub prime greed. See what you think….

After the dinner I took a walk up to the old RBS headquarters in St Andrews Square and then up past the HBOS headquarters.

It had been an eventful few days , talking to potential new recruits , funders , our staff , some customers and finally one of Scotland‘s top business guru’s . It was 12 midnight … a new day .. and I was in a reflective mood … then I passed a marble statue which was inscribed with a quote from Einstein.

” Knowledge is great … Imagination is greater” 

Harnessing the imagination of the people in our business will be a major challenge us as we move forward . There are opportunities out there … lets find them! ..

Lets support those opportunities by finding more new customers whom we can give the opportunity of genuine asset finance choice.     

Kind Regards,

Allan