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When you want to get a quick response to an FYI email

Here are five questions. You have two seconds to answer each:

c12-fig-5002

How did you get on?

The answers are:

  • In
  • Water
  • The same
  • None
  • It hasn’t

Did you get them all? Or did you say:

  • Out
  • Milk
  • Metal
  • 24m2
  • “Really? I never knew that.”

The Problem With Speed

We make such quick decisions sometimes that we sacrifice accuracy for speed. And while we don’t have to get everything 100% right, things do need to be “right enough”.

When you spend the “right enough” amount of time preparing communications, you get things “right enough” first time. This saves lots of follow-up, grief and hassle.

It sounds so obvious. But, here’s another quick quiz:

c12-fig-5003

How did you get on?

By the way, the answers should be no, no, no, no and no

Getting Good Responses to FYIS

I want to look again at Quiz 2’s FYI question.

Why? Because FYIs are big communication time-wasters, for both you and the recipient. To explain this, let’s look at it in a different context.

Scenario 1: Mrs. X has a book she thinks Mr. Y might want to read. She runs to his desk, throws the book at him, says “Read this” and walks away.

Doesn’t that seem odd behaviour? Why would Mrs. X do something like this? What’s Mr. Y going to think? What’s he supposed to do with the book? Why will he think she’s given it to him? Will he be grateful to her? Confused by her? Will he read it?

Scenario 2: Mrs. X emails Mr. Y an attachment with the message “FYI”.

If you didn’t work in the corporate world, you’d think this second scenario was weird. But it’s actually the same thing as Scenario 1. In both cases, somebody has thrown something at somebody, saying “Read this”.

When you send something “FYI”, what are you expecting the recipient to do? Read it? File it? Absorb it? Act on it? Email you their views? Any of these? None? Does it matter? Will they care? Do you?

Or, as I once read, when you send an FYI, do you really mean “You’re not interested in this, but I’ve covered my back by sending it to you”.

Powerful Alternatives to FYI

The best alternatives to FYI contain:

1. A scene-set, to give context; and
2. An action, to give direction.

So, alternatives would include:

“The attached relates to X that we discussed yesterday. Have a look and tell me if you think it changes anything.”
“I received this from Emma, and think it might help us with X. Check out section 3. Should we change our approach?”
“Head Office sent the attached to me, concerning X. I haven’t time to read it now, but think it might interest you, because of Y. Please have a read and feedback anything you think I need to know.”

These take a little longer than “FYI” – though not much, to be honest – but are much better for the reader, and therefore for you.

And, of course, when you receive FYIs, just reply with “Thanks for this. What would you like me to do with it?”

After all, you would never throw a book at someone, saying “Read this”. So why do the equivalent by email?

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