What instruments do you execute with?
My class in high school was the last to learn the slide rule and the first to move to a terminal from punched cards. So I took typing in high school, not to be an admin (like my first boss thought), but because being able to do it well was the connection to the rest of the world. I started at IBM just as they started using outside networks to connect remote people in ways still taking over our lives. Interestingly, studies have shown that people hate email – it takes up WAY too much of their daily Rhythm and produces very little ROI – and yet, they can’t let go. So, who is executing whom?
Part of the Rhythm of modern management is communication in writing. Now, often cut down to 140 characters in texts (interestingly, a technical limitation brought to you by the internet packet definition), how and what to share with whom can change “execution” into a different word. That “Jerry Maguire” memo can now be written and sent in less than a few minutes, and there are many leaders that I am engaged with … shortly AFTER they press “send.” More common is the complaint that they are drowning in emails, usually 300-500 per day…
How do you get better?
Bo Diddley wrote “Who Do You Love” in 1956 in Kansas City, where he heard a group of children trying to out-brag one another using a particular Rhythm. “It was like an African chant, and I wanted words that would suit it,” Bo Diddley recalled. Inspired by the Muddy Waters 1954 hit “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man,” he wanted to outdo songwriter Willie Dixon’s lyrical swagger: “I’m telling this chick … how bad I am, so she can go tell the cat she’s hanging with, “this dude is something else.” That’s what it kinda meant, cat ridin’ rattlesnakes and kissin’ boa constrictors and stuff.”
The homonym “who do” is an allusion to “hoodoo,” a Louisiana/Mississippi folk magic belief that events can be influenced by its use. However, Bo uses imagery more common to the American Southwest, combined with exaggerated bravado. He explained that the first line, “I got forty-seven miles of barbed wire”, came to him quickly, “but I couldn’t get a rhyme for it. I thought of car tires and mule trains, and I couldn’t get anything to fit. Then one day I said ‘use a cobra snake,’ and my drummer, Clifton James, added ‘for a necktie.’” Jody Williams answers the vocal lines with prominent, distinctive, overdriven guitar fills and a solo. Spin magazine adds, “His solo on Diddley’s ‘Who Do You Love?’ is a lesson in evil”. And even with all that, it was executed as a B side… normally a throwaway.
Clarify what execute means…
Getting control of your inbox is a phrase that is Googled millions of times… per minute. Somewhere in those 300 to 500 emails are a few that are not B sides – things you need to know. Finding them is a Rhythm that requires some diligence. A VP I worked for had some great insights. First – never “:cc” your boss. It instantly changes the conversation: you have escalated the “:to” into a battle that you may not intend. If you want your “bear” to know what is happening, forward it to them with your own insights… and WHY the boss/Bear needs to be informed.
Second, when you have “:re(6)”, you must execute a meeting. The Rhythm of all the emails going back and forth may be fun to watch, but you and the others in the thread have failed to communicate. Good meetings are hard, but email is not the best path forward. Remember that the words in communication are only 7% of communication – 38% is the tone of voice, and the remaining 55% is body language.
Third – have a clear subject line. Insert letters in the header – FYI, Action Needed… things that actually tell the recipient what to do with it. Everyone can now sort emails based on those headers. My partner and I put the account’s name in the header – so all emails about UVa, for example, were easy to find…
… and why you are communicating in the first place!
But my very favorite idea – figure out WHY you are using email. I worked with a leader who was in the 300 to 500 category. We sorted using the above, and then moved urgent messages to be done in texts or calls. Any status information was reserved for… wait for it… 1 on 1 meetings and their… again wait… Status reports. She ended up with 10… a day. She also had her email off other than 10 minutes at 9, 12, and 5. 30 Minutes total each day. That Rhythm freed her to do her actual job, which was not writing 😉
As you reflect on your week, think about how you want to leverage this amazing tool… that can connect you with anyone on the planet in mere seconds. Where should it fit in your daily and weekly Rhythm? Why are you responding, what do you mean, and is this the best instrument to execute your task? Will it be a B side… or worth the packets? Who Do You Love?
