Have you ever thought of what it would be like if you didn’t have a corporate email account? Just imagine the communications breakdown that would quickly ensue. After all, without email you’d have no way of sending informative one-word responses and ultra important meeting requests. What’s more, you’d never have to spend an entire afternoon trying to decide whether your manager’s latest memo was laced with sarcasm or just another example of his complete lack of tact.
When put like that, a workplace without email sounds… great.
This is because, when it comes to miscommunication and misdirected meaning, digital communication mediums like email, intranets, and instant messaging systems provide the perfect environment for foot-in-mouth interactions. Why? Lack of context. Sure, that clever one-liner might be a perfectly acceptable response to your coworker’s latest request, but is an impersonal email really the right way to deliver it?
According to a recent study by the Journal of Personal Social Psychology, only 84 percent of sarcastic statements in digital correspondences are actually detected. The other 12 percent of the time? People just think you’re a colossal jerk.
*Sigh*
Facial expressions, body language, and tone play an integral part in how we as humans communicate. In other words, what we see during an exchange has just as much, if not more, of an impact on our understanding of a conversation than the actual words that we hear. Because email communicators can’t discern your intentions through visual cues, they’ll often struggle to “hear” your funny or sarcastic undertones.
And while it may seem like a minor issue, (so what if your humor is too advanced for your co-workers?) this ongoing friction in office communication could be responsible for tense work environments, reduced productivity, and poor employee performance. According to the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, miscommunication is the #2 cause of stress in the American workplace. What’s more, it’s killing your company culture one misguided email at a time.
And that’s nothing to laugh at.
Failed Attempts to Tame the Miscommunication Beast
The issue of digital miscommunication has been the focus of a number of innovative, albeit slightly strange, software startups. Take the sarcastic-detecting system developed by French tech shop, Spotter. This algorithm-based analytics software uses a combination of linguistics, semantics, and heuristics to generate reports about online reputation. The company states the software can identify sentiment, be it sarcasm or genuine gratitude, 80 percent of the time.
According to a BBC report, airlines are a huge fan of this software. Which means the next time you tweet something like, “Hey thanks [insert airline here] for getting me into Vancouver four hours behind schedule”, there’s a 4 in 5 chance that the company will catch your gist.
If that isn’t reassuring, I don’t know what is… (cue Spotter reference.)
Next up, we have the revolutionary SarcMark. The brainchild of a Michigan based agency, the SarcMark symbol functions similar to an exclamation mark or question mark, only instead of denoting emphasis or inquiry, it’s used to indicate sarcasm, thereby avoiding awkward misunderstandings.
The symbol, which is a dot inside of a single spiral line, can be used in Word documents, instant messenger conversations, emails, and other digital communication mediums. Simply download the SarcMark and press the Ctrl + the “.” (full stop) key. The SarcMark is also available for use on Blackberry mobile devices.
An interesting concept? Sure. A dismal failure? Absolutely. According the official SarcMark website, the symbol can be downloaded for the low, low price of $1.99. But act fast and you can download it for free for a limited time! (If ever there was a statement that deserved a SarcMark all its own, it’s that one.)
The Cost of Miscommunication and the Importance of Clarity
According to Tower Watson, companies that have highly effective internal communications report a 47 percent higher total return to shareholders. On the flip side, companies with roughly 100 employees reportedly spend an average of 17 hours a week clarifying communications – that translates to an annual cost of roughly $528,443 in wasted time (source 360Solutions).
(Suddenly, $1.99 for a SarcMark doesn’t seem all that silly…)
Before you issue a company wide memo introducing the SarcMark, try tackling the issue of miscommunication at its source: context. Setting clear expectations for e-mail exchanges can help solve a lot of office communication problems. What’s more, remember what Marshall McLuhan said about the medium being the message. Certain mediums, especially in today’s tech-driven world, will naturally color your message, suggesting meaning and interpretation that you may not have intended. For example, your CEO overhears a rumor about your company while she’s attending a conference. Curious, she sends a quick BBM to her personal assistant, asking him to look into the allegations. Since the message was sent as a BBM, it could be construed as an urgent request, when really the CEO was only mildly interested. Now the assistant has spent all day following a frivolous lead when he should have been working on more pressing projects.
At the end of the day, there’s no silver bullet to help you clarify your office communications aside from face-to-face interaction. That’s why tools that marrying technology with human interactions are becoming an increasing important part of corporate communications. Simple, visual, human forms of digital interactions provide context to your communications.
No SarcMark required.
via Say What? How Digital Miscommunication is Killing Your Company Culture | Perch.
Say What? How Digital Miscommunication is Killing Your Company Culture
