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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | MAY 10, 2002 FACTORY DAYS By Lisa Bergson Timeless Truths about Instant Messaging Few things are more convenient than Cyber Age communications. But to make an impression, nothing beats the personal touch
"Oh, I love instant messaging," I blurt, feeling like a TV commercial. "I use it at work when I want to handle some routine thing quickly." "For that, you can just go see someone," he says. (Interestingly, within Herb's sizable home, he, his wife, and his teenage daughters communicate via cell phone.) I reply: "I only go see someone when I want to make an impact." LEARNING CURVE. Perhaps it's my training in communications, but I'm fairly conscious of how we intuitively use all the new modes of interacting, as well as their gradations of value. With so many efficient alternatives, what's known as face time has taken on even more import. Instant messages are, as the term implies, great for immediacy on simple, time-sensitive matters. I might write my assistant: "Would you kindly change my flight time to...?" (I try to use it sparingly, since the flashing icons can disrupt another's work.) As I think about it, many of the new modes of communication have an assertive, intrusive quality -- cell phones above all. Last year, I was at a church funeral and one of the mourner's phones went off during the service. Worse yet, he took the call. Such displays make people damn the technology. But, really, we're all just learning how this new stuff fits into our lives and the lives of those around us. So, while I won't claim to be the last word on this topic, allow me to join the debate over the best, most appropriate uses for these powerful tools. Instant messaging. Installed companywide on the advice of another, more wired board member, instant messaging has been slow to take hold. Akin to a screaming post-it, the medium's insistent quality annoys Tom Mallon, our executive vice-president for sales and marketing. For my assistant and me, however, it's a Cyber Age shorthand: a barely intrusive way to quickly exchange information. E-mail. Internally, at both of my companies, we constantly use e-mail for activity updates, reports, and communiques. I am so totally dependent that it's frustrating to be in places where I can't download. (On the other hand, my husband and I will deliberately take vacations where there's little to no access. You gotta unplug sometimes.) But as powerful as e-mail is, there are ways to use it more effectively. First, take a few seconds to put a subject on your e-mail. The ability to sort and store by topic is one of the many advantages. Second, neatly package lengthy documents into attachments, making them easier to revise and print. As an older user, I'm still more comfortable reading hard copy than online. (And here I am, writing for an online publication!) Cell phones. Like many other businesspeople, I take a list of follow-up calls to make on long drives, upping my productivity along with my risk of accident. (No advice on this one, other than stay out of the fast lane.) Until my latest two-week trip to Europe, I never kept my cell phone on when I wasn't using it. But trying to coordinate with my husband and a colleague as we all traipsed through different places at different times and were involved in various misadventures, would have been impossible without activated international cellular access. Still I always turn it off in restaurants, during meetings, and at public events -- and I urge you to do the same. Voice mail. Never leave lengthy, rambling business messages on voice mail. It is so annoying and hard to follow that it actually defeats your purpose. Provide key information like your phone number early on, so that the receiver doesn't have to replay the entire monologue to extract it: "Hi, it's Lisa Bergson, president of MEECO/Tiger Optics. Herb Benjamin suggested I call you to talk about sales representation in Europe. Please give me a call at....Take care now." Like that. Not incidentally, I hate when people neglect to state their reason for calling. I try to use every interaction to move things along. Expedite! Expedite! That said, I still find the most evocative and meaningful ways to communicate remain by letter and in person. Like fast food, the preponderance of fast words starts to feel like so many empty calories. Letters, by contrast, have substance. Far more formal and carefully crafted than e-mail, they show respect for the recipient and lend significance to their content. You would never e-mail your condolences, I hope. When you introduce new products, businesses, ideas, and yourself, do so in print. If timing compels you to e-mail your résumé, follow with a hard copy and a nicely written, neatly formatted cover letter. As for face time, there's really no substitute for a certain look. Now that really is instant messaging!  Lisa Bergson is President and CEO of both MEECO and Tiger Optics. Before joining MEECO in 1983, Lisa Bergson worked as a business journalist at BusinessWeek and freelanced for many business publications. You can visit her companies' Web sites at www.meeco.com and www.tigeroptics.com, or contact her at lbergson@meeco.com Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | MAY |
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