Forms of Communication

Using blogs as a communication tool is all well and good as long as it is used in the right context. This is why I want to capture a few thoughts about various forms of communication. I put together the following diagram to help explain:

(click to view)

In the diagram above I placed each form of communication in a numbered column. Here are my thoughts on each column:

1. Column 1: This is the fastest and possibly the easiest form of communication. It is also the most annoying form of communication, depending on who you are, as it is the most interruptible. When you use this form of communication you should be asking yourself, “Do I really need to interrupt this person at this specific point in time?”
2. Column 2: E-mail is a slightly slower form of communication than those mentioned in #1 because it takes more time to compose. What you should be asking yourself when you send e-mail is, “Do I really need to force information on this person?”.
3. Column 3: This form of communication is somewhat delayed and also dependent upon people subscribing to this information. It is not meant for mission critical or time sensitive information, like #1 and #2, but is nice because it allows the people the choice of obtaining information.
4. Column 4: Like #3 but even slower as it depends on the person finding about this form of communication, usually by means of #1 through #3, and then finding the time to dedicate to absorbing the information.

I would also like to point out that columns #1 and #2 are time sensitive and mission critical information and should be used that way. Columns #3 and #4 should be used for information that needs to be captured but is not time sensitive. The other key point to remember is that information in columns #1 and #2 is information that your are forcing on another person while columns #3 and #4 allow people the choice of obtaining information.

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