If you had to apply a Facebook relationship status to your email inbox, it would probably be ‘It’s Complicated’.
While email has become the lifeblood of most organizations, when it comes to team collaboration, email also plays the villain. Over-reliance on email to communicate and collaborate with your team, also known as Disruptive Email Flatulence (DEF) is a classic symptom of Collaborative Dysfunction (CD). CD effects millions of teams worldwide, most of whom don’t even know they have it.
SYMPTOM: Disruptive Email Flatulence (DEF)
Emailing is a reflex. Need to share a file? Email. Need to ask a question? Email. Need feedback? Email. Before you know it, all of your team’s important conversations and files are trapped in inboxes everywhere.
In other words:
- Group conversations grow unwieldy too quickly
- Keeping track of the most current version of an attached document is the modern-era’s needle in a haystack
- It’s nearly impossible to maintain clarity about what needs to get done, and by whom
CURE: 3 Ways Confluence Alleviates DEF
Confluence, team collaboration software, alleviates Disruptive Email Flatulence by providing one place to create, store, share, and discuss the work your team needs to get done.
1. Trade your inbox for WorkBox
There are two (among many) major issues with email:
- It’s hard to quickly tell an important email from a trivial email.
- Checking your email means context switching.
Click here to learn more about Confluence WorkBox >>
2. Connect your team with @mentions
Ever @mentioned someone in Facebook or Twitter? It’s the perfect way to grab someone’s attention and bring them into a conversation. Best of all, you don’t have to send an email to notify them. Confluence @mentions serve the same purpose but in a working context – bringing your coworkers into the conversations and work they need to know about to get their jobs done.
There are three ways we use @mentions at Atlassian to:
- Reduce the amount of email we send,
- Stop valuable the conversations that ensue from getting trapped in multiple email inboxes, never to be found again; and
- Allow everyone to benefit from the great ideas that come out of conversations that take place in Confluence.
Click here to learn more about 3 tips for using @mentions in Confluence >>
3. Share important work your team, instantly
Email is messy and it can be hard to differentiate an important work email from a trivial one. A simple feedback loop can quickly become a whirling chaos of email and attachments.
While @mentions are great for pulling individuals into important work, there are also times when you just want to notify a group of co-workers, or simply disseminate important information. The Confluence Share Button is perfect for this. In a couple of clicks, you can share all your important work without email or even switching contexts.
Click here to learn more about 3 Ways to Keep Your Team In Sync With Shares >>
Try Confluence Today
New to Confluence? Start a FREE 30-day evaluation and see how Confluence can help reduce your team’s reliance on email. It’s time to make work about work again.