When it comes to e-mail conversations amongst a group folks, whether it be a business e-mail or personal, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Most importantly, there is a lack of thought when clicking “Reply to All”. Unless “all” needs to be aware or cares about your comments — which is usually not the case — one should remove any e-mail address of those that don’t need, don’t know or who you know wouldn’t be interested in your comments.
Then, you add to the mix that many do not make the effort to learn how to down-edit e-mails when involved in ongoing conversations and you have a mess and opportunity for miscommunication. When readers have to weed through all the back and forths to find any new comments, the conversation looses its focus and value.
Follow these 3 simple tips when you find yourself involved in an ongoing back and forth e-mail conversation with multiple recipients:
1) Use Reply to All sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. The majority of times, editing down the list of addresses to those who your comments directly apply to is recommended.
2) Always down-edit ongoing conversations to include only that from the previous e-mail(s) that is required for the clarity of the continuing conversation or that you are specifically replying to.
3) If the overall topic of the conversation takes a new direction, do change the Subject field to note the new focus. For example: Subject: Trip Details and Links WAS: Where should we go?
HTH!
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What about people who reply to the first email they get to without reading replies from other members of the group? So John sends an email to a group, sally replies, Joe replies to Sally and john’s, Liz replies to Sally, John and Liz, Frank replies only to John, asking questions that Sally, Joe and Liz have already asked and answered in their emails. Frank is behind by 4 emails when he replies to John’s. His excuse is: I reply in order that I receive!
Should you read all emails with the same subject line before responding?
Hey, Joanna:
Great point and an important one too! When you know you are involved in multi-recipient lists, you need to review all related e-mails in the thread to catch up with the conversation before responding. To claim you answer in the order received simply smacks of lack of courtesy and not caring about the keeping the conversation on track for the group as a whole. This attitude breaks the natural flow of the conversation while contributing to a lack of overall clarity.
An easy way to avoid this situation is when you check your e-mails, sort them by subject. Then read the entire conversation in the order in which it was received. Once you have read those e-mails where you were not available to contribute at that point of the discussion — then respond with your commentary only if you feel you can contribute valuable insight or information to the conversation.