e-liz

I am not a "phone person."

For me, the telephone presents some of the worst optimization for communication: it has the immediacy of an in-person meeting without the benefit of contextual physical and facial cues to help you read people's reactions. On the other hand it has the protective distance of email without the benefit of time and editing to help you express yourself deliberately. Basically, it's the worst.

But I work with "phone people" all the time, so I've had to make the phone work for me, to some extent. Especially because no one likes someone who doesn't like talking on the phone. Doesn't it kind of make me sound shy and maladjusted? I promise, I'm neither of those things (well... I'm not shy). But I do have a very clear vision of how I would like to be communicated with, and it looks like this:

I want an email if...

• You need something from me that I might not be able to give you immediately.
  I try to work within a basic GTD framework, so all tasks that have multiple parts, require supporting materials, or deviate from my established routines are going to go into writing - why not make it easier for me and put it in writing to begin with?
• You want me to know something that I may need to remember or restate to someone else later.
  Same idea here. Unless it's something simple, obvious, or incredibly short-term, I'm going to want to take notes. It would be better if those notes were instead already in my Inbox and searchable by your name.

I want a phone call if...

• You need something from me that requires turnaround in five minutes or less.
  Straightforward, quick, urgent requests that are not going to enter my formal workflow would only clutter my Inbox, so I would actually prefer these by phone. Of course, this is contingent on compatibility in our understanding of the word "urgent." When I say that, I mean "requires turnaround in five minutes or less." "Requires turnaround in the next few hours," in my world, is just a regular request. I can accommodate it.
• I need something from you that requires turnaround in five minutes or less.
  Technically, this wouldn't bother me going to email instead. But if you're a phone person, and just a moment ago I asked you for something, urgently... by all means, go nuts.

I want an in-person meeting if...

• Some complex combination of the above is required.
  If we've got a bunch of information we need to give each other (of various types), or we need to brainstorm and reach a decision about something together, let's meet at a scheduled time. This kind of interaction is nearly impossible via email, and requires too much preparation for an ad hoc phone call. Get it on the calendar!

How do these compare with your ideal rules for communication? Would you have a difficult time working like this? Are there obstacles to this type of framework in some office cultures... and can those be effectively overcome?

Two other posts I've bookmarked from people in the anti-phone camp:
"I hate talking on the phone" (Ask a Manager)
"Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media" (Altitude Branding)