Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk
Whenever we are faced with a challenge that causes us to leave our comfort zone we often retreat into our offices and hide behind our cyber persona in the form of email or SMS. No place better is this brought out than in the midst of a merger when tensions can be high and we are at our most vulnerable point. Often email messages can be read many different ways, and you can be sure that the one that is the least pleasant will be the way yours gets read. You may feel you are responding with a short concise response, but the reader may interpret this as snippy or dismissive. This can be especially true when you are dealing with two different cultures, as I did when we merged with the Library.
A simple yet highly effective way to combat this is to meet face to face, over lunch or coffee. Take a walk to go and visit the people you will be working with. Let them know who you are and get to know who they are. You may find that there are areas of common ground that you can use to disarm tensions and to let each other know you are both working together not in competition. You can begin to create a common dialog and learn the talk and walk of your new partners.
After all you are more likely to read an email in the kind voice of the person you know verses the unkind voice of an adversary.
John W Turner
Tags: communications, email, IT, Library, voice