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Careless Move Teaches Valuable Lesson

I am constantly trying to do too much at once: talk on the phone while answering email, drive and talk on my cell phone while listening to music. Perhaps it’s too many meetings, too many airplane flights, and too many hotel rooms. Whatever, you get the picture. Maybe this once I have learned something. Maybe.

By Jan Quintrall, President,
Better Business Bureau serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho & Montana
[email protected]

Earlier this summer I was carrying too much to my car which prompted me to set some things down in the parking lot in order to load it all. We have all done it, set that cup of coffee on top of the car and driven off, or left the bag of groceries on the trunk only to run over it once it fell off.

This time around, my little problem was not a simple cup of coffee. I set my laptop next to the car and forgot it was there. When I backed up, I felt a little bump and thought “Hmmm, what was that?” Then it dawned on me, it was my laptop! Great–that little device that contained practically my entire brain, well, that and my scheduler. I got out of the car, picked it up, dusted tire tracks off the flimsy canvas case, and suddenly that feeling of dread set in.

Being the optimist that I am, I opened it and turned it on. Nothing broken yet. (Living in the Hot Zone, I can check my wireless connection.) I came to find that it still worked, except for about 3” of the right-hand part of the screen. Phew! However, this is where the true lesson began.

Early in October, I took off for two weeks and thought it would be a great time to send my laptop back to Dell for a new screen. (I know, if I had purchased an Itronix Rugged Laptop, I would not be writing this column!) My technology folks here at the BBB handled this task, and when I returned from vacation I had a loaner laptop from another staff member to use. I was told my laptop would be back from Dell by the end of the following week. No problem, right?

Wrong! My entire email address book did not get downloaded into the loaner, nor did a variety of documents, budget worksheets, financial histories, archived email, etc. My history was gone and I was lost! I sat down to email reports and questions to people whom I usually regularly email, and found I had none of those addresses.

I am an email addict. It is my number one preferred form of communication. People who do not have an email address drop off my radar screen fast.

Not pleased with the revelation that I had become that dependent on email to communicate, I actually had to pick up the phone and call people. That’s when the destructive side of this problem became apparent. The first couple of people I called commented, “Well, hi, Jan! I don’t think I have talked to you in at least a year!” Ouch. There I sat thinking I was actually being dutifully “in touch” with all of these folks, at least by email, but that certainly was not their perception.

Not a week goes by without something being printed on the subject of concern over young people spending too much screen-time on computers and TV, text messaging and chat rooms and such and not near enough time talking and interacting with other humans. Adults are, frankly, no different. Consider this:

• You make a call and hope you get voicemail so you can just cut to the chase and not have to bother with all those time-consuming niceties when you speak to a human

• You check Caller ID and decide you would rather send the call to voicemail so again, you don’t have to deal with the human side of the call

• You send an email to a co-worker just down the hall because it is easier

• You hold meetings using email, send important and detailed documents using email when the message, the goal and the future success of the subject would be much better served in person

Do any of these “guilts” ring a bell? What are we losing in the quest for efficiency and speed? I do not think we yet know what we are losing having already turned human communication over to electronics.

The best answer might be, don’t surrender your communication over to anything but make it better. Email is the very best way to send the same message to a group of people, but use it only when another form of keeping in touch is too cumbersome. The emails I receive in response to this column are wonderful, but if I had to field phone calls in the volume I field email, I would need to be cloned!

I have made some promises to myself with regards to this lesson:

• I will walk down the hall and talk to an employee, and not depend so much on email

• I will do my best to not send bad news via email

• I will make sure I make phone calls and visits whenever I possibly can

• I will not simply forward some funny or another’s message to someone and consider that keeping in touch or maintaining a relationship

• I will not apologize for an error or shortcoming via email

And, any message that needs my voice inflection, facial expression or a gentle touch to go with it will be done in person if at all possible.

Just stop and think about the impact a call, hand-written letter or visit has on you. These simple things become rarer everyday, yet more appreciated.

By the way, look for my electronic Holiday Greeting in your email box soon! (Just kidding!)

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