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tcw
the contentwrangler
tcw
the contentwrangler
WHY
BUSINESSES
DON’T
COLLABORATE
Meeting Management,Group Input, & Wiki Use
Survey Report
Stewart Mader,
Future Changes
Scott Abel,
The Content Wrangler
Why Businesses (Don’t) Collaborate
Survey Report on Group Input, Meeting Management, and Wiki Use
Today, content professionals are tugged in multiple directions, expected to multi-task theirway through an increasing amount of work with the help of software tools designed to makethem more productive. This survey aims to explore how you and your co-workers utilizesoftware tools and determine, in various scenarios, whether they are actually a help or ahindrance.We received
523 responses
to the following 12 questions, and include brief analysis and asampling of the comments people wrote in addition to their answers.
1.How many work-related emails do you receive per day?
We wanted to know how many messages people receive on a daily basis:
•
60% said they receive 11-50 messages
•
22% said they receive 50-100 emails
•
8% said they receive more than 100
•
10% said they receive less than 1082% of respondents receive dozens of emails on a dailybasis. The comments indicate that people consider emaila signi
fi
cant time management issue, and the importantinformation often gets lost in the volume of email.
Comments
‣
It is a challenge to absorb, respond,
fi
le, and otherwisemanage email and also get other work done.
‣
About 30% are actionable, 35% have content that might be useful now or later (I'll skim),and the rest is unimportant.
‣
I can read, respond to,
fi
le, delete or otherwise meaningfully manage only about 25% of the email I receive.
‣
Email is a signi
fi
cant time management issue.
‣
Many are a waste of bandwidth.
‣
Many times, a single e-mail will launch a multiple e-mail conversation.
‣
I get copied on a lot of our process and project tracking emails, but auto-move those intofolders for checking less frequently.
8%22%60%10%
2.How many of those emails include attached
fi
les?
65% of respondents said a few of the daily emails they receive contain attachments, and 25%said at least half contain attachments. Only 2% said that the vast majority includeattachments.
Comments
‣
Usually, the attached
fi
le is only a page or two long. The content could easily be put up ona wiki for review/comments/reading.
‣
I have emphasized within those I communicate with to use links to docs on doc serverinstead of e-mail. In fact, I have an interesting diagram about the problems caused by e-mailing documents (out of synch with master, mailbox full, etc). Many employees at mycompany ‘get it’.
‣
We generally include the path to network folder locations rather than attaching
fi
les.
‣
Too many do not grasp the concept of shared folders.
‣
The government is bad at sending a long chain of emails and responses with anattachment still attached from the original email.
3.How many require your direct input or feedback on the contents of thatattachment?
•
55% reported that at least half require feedback
•
36% reported that only a few require feedback
Comments
‣
Almost all require my input. I am the editor for all themember and provider communications that aregenerated from our department. I also respond toRFPs on behalf of our department.
‣
If I do get attachments, the sender usually wants myopinion on something before that sender does theo
ffi
cial ‘mass mailing’.
‣
Those that don't require my direct input or feedback often need to be available as references and so need sorting and tracking to keep up withupdated versions.
‣
I myself have discovered that a useful way of obtaining feedback when I have speci
fi
cquestions about an in-process project is to attach an excerpt of a PDF with Acrobatcomments embedded. This gets me excellent results -- much better than if I simply pointthe recipient to the PDF and indicate which pages I want them to examine.
40%60%
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