At one time or another, we’ve all climbed aboard the FYI train. You receive an email from your boss. The first line of the email says “FYI”. The next line is the beginning of the forwarded email from his or her boss, it also says “FYI”. The FYIs continue back to the original sender of the email. That’s the FYI train.
Most people think that the FYI train is a good thing. They defend the practice by saying that they are helping to cascade information down into the organization. Passing along information is a good thing. However, passing along information without context isn’t.
The president of a company should have a very different reason for sending along an article to his or her vice presidents than a front line manager should have for sending to his or her team. After all, the vice presidents and front line staff have very different views of the organization, are held accountable for significantly different things, and have been engaging in different conversations with their bosses. So why send the exact same message without any guidance?
The most common excuse for not providing context is time. Most leaders don’t think they have any and typing FYI and hitting send is a quick way to get the task done. But is that really the best use of time? If the leader believes that one part of the article supports a recent decision or conversation, why have everyone else read the entire thing (hoping they’ll figure out the connection)? If the president is expecting a response or recommendation based upon the article doesn’t it save time to spell that out?
The problem is that most leaders associate context with detail. The two are different. You can provide context with very little detail and you can provide a lot of detail without any context.
A simple statement of what the recipient should focus on or do with the forwarded email might be sufficient. In some cases, a broader explanation might be necessary if you are trying to relate the contents of the email to something that is currently happening.
Context is important. It’s true that people don’t have a lot of extra time. However, they really don’t have time for accumulating facts and information that serve no purpose. Nothing should be “for your information” anymore. If something triggers you to forward an email to someone else, pass along that detail.
A little context will go a long way at helping people use their time more effectively and, in the end, will save you the time from having to backtrack and explain why you wanted them to look at the information in the first place.
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Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com
