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April 2, 2001

RADICAL SIMPLICITY
Simplify That E-Mail

Hesitant to return from a trip for fear of drowning in the E-Mail backlog? Users bear some responsibility for their own application complexity.

By Eric Chabrow (echabrow@cmp.com)

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hile there's plenty of room to improve the ways IT products are designed, configured, and supported, the people who use technology can do their part to control complexity. Misuse can also be a culprit, so even the simplest applications become burdensome.

Take E-mail, arguably the most-used IT application. In countless ways, it has simplified communication. But its ubiquity has caused E-mail volume to swell to sometimes-overwhelming proportions. Spend a few days away from the office, and 300 messages lie in wait on that first morning back. Now, that's complex.

Sure, technology's ability to easily replicate messages and files adds to the problem. But E-mail users can do something about that, says Lisa Kimball, founder and executive producer of Group Jazz, a communications process consultancy. It's important to resist the temptation to "cc" whole groups of E-mail users when sending messages that only one or two others really need to see. "The nature of the medium feels very egalitarian. 'I'll send to everyone to cover my ass,'" Kimball says, echoing the rationale of cc-prone users. "We receive stuff we don't need to get."

In an effort to simplify matters, some businesses deploy collaborative-computing tools. E-mails aren't necessarily directed to individuals, but are placed in shared folders, where users can access them as needed instead of having them clutter their inboxes. At first, only a handful of folders containing a few files appear on the application's desktop. Inevitably, though, the number of files grows, and managing information again becomes complex. "Each time we make progress, it works for a while; then we need to deal with increased complexity again," Kimball says.

Technology users must rely in part on their own wits to simplify processes. They must think before they act, says management consultant Bill Jensen. "Technology is just a tool. Technology doesn't cause complexity, people do."