The drivers of individual email efficiency
At an individual level the desired outcomes of an increase in efficient use of email are reductions in the time spent writing and reading email. A decrease in the time spent searching for email and a reduction in what is called 'interrupt recovery time', that is the time spent checking email and then returning to the task in hand. For some individuals who check their email up to fifty times a day, or who respond every time an email enters the inbox this is a large amount of time. The positive counterparts of these behaviors include writing clearer emails, sharing appropriately and sending the right amount of information only to those who need to see it.
The drivers of this efficiency can be grouped under 'creating behaviors' and 'receiving behaviors'. These are often expressed in terms of rules and form the basis of advice that is often seen in the columns of newspapers and journals and in popular books on email.
These drivers are explicitly addressed in our email programs, and are monitored carefully throughout the process of change. However their adoption has only limited effectiveness if they are embraced at an individual level, the benefits of changed behavior are only leveraged when all members of the network change together.
