THIS HALF-DAY SEMINAR ON EMAIL teaches employees how to use the medium with intelligence and skill. In just a few hours, the program highlights the key pitfalls and most common mistakes, and participants get valuable practice with a toolkit of new techniques and best practices.

A CLOSER LOOK

Email has now matured as a business tool, and it's time to take stock of the way we use this medium: nail down what works and what doesn't work.

That's where Email Excellence comes in. The course is designed to do two things: first, teach the core skills needed to increase the impact and effectiveness of routine messages; second, show employees how to avoid the kinds of missteps with the medium that waste everybody's time. Among the most common mishaps:

• The dead zone. Employees sometimes find themselves wondering whether anyone is even reading their messages — whether anyone will ever do the things they've requested. We show employees the keys to grabbing readers' attention and getting timely responses to requests for action or information.
• Damaged credibility. In email, the writer's credibility can be easily and inadvertently undermined, and sometimes the whole company's credibility is on the line. What's clear is that certain things in email undermine credibility while other things enhance it. We show employees the difference.
• Damage to relationships. With email, misfires and misinterpretations are commonplace and can be horrific. The unique volatility of the medium is familiar to anyone who has relied on it for any length of time — Condescending? I wasn't being condescending. How could she get that from what I wrote...? — We show employees how to safeguard routine messages from the most common mishaps.

KEY TOPICS

• The SUBJECT: line. Employees routinely underestimate the importance of this feature — the first thing about your message that any reader sees, i.e., when surveying the contents of his or her inbox. We show employees what they must accomplish with the SUBJECT: line and three basic formulae that cover all the bases.
• Effective openings. The first lines in the body of the message are critical. Employees learn simple methods for engaging the reader and announcing their purpose.
• Logical organization. With messages of any length, a clear train of thought is key — clear points, clearly expressed. Employees learn how to make such messages easy to read and easy to follow, even when the content is highly technical.
• The limitations of writing. Employees learn to distinguish when email is likely to be efficient and when it is not — when it might be a better idea to pick up the phone.

SCHEDULING A SEMINAR

For more information or to book a seminar, please contact us.