I don't know why but I don't like carrying a notebook. Perhaps I'm still scarred by the years of lugging around those class-specific, color-coded, Trapper Keepers from junior high school when my arms were just long enough to wrap around the stack and barely hold on as I navigated the crowded halls from class to class. I love taking notes, however, and feel like old-school writing is one of the most important things I can do to support memory, convey attention, and stay organized and engaged. Being a note-taking fanatic with a desire to remain hands-free, I had a dilemma.
At the risk of sounding hypocritical, I'll admit upfront that when I considered the content of this message, the following verse came to mind:
"This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinner' - and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience..." (1 Timothy 1:15-16)
We all have issues, and I for one have a lot of them. The facts are, however, that our issues don't define what's true. Just because I may not be able to solve a calculus problem correctly every time, doesn't mean the underlying math principles aren't true. Thankfully, we aren't called into perfection on this earth but progress.
I was reading several email exchanges the other day sent to me by different teammates. They shared the long strings of communications around some issues each was trying to resolve. To be honest, they were small but admittedly frustrating things. As I read through the chains, I watched them morph from molehills into mountains. I also saw several opportunities where a collision could have been avoided, simply by obeying the email traffic law of stopping and picking up the phone. And it wasn't a one-way street. One phone call at the start between two people choosing to be reasonable professionals could have avoided the incident altogether. And there were several opportunities to stop and detour....all missed.
Each time a communication was passed, the issue grew. Each time an additional person was copied, the issue grew. Each time that additional person chimed in, the issue grew. Like a semi speeding down a hill with no brakes, the issue picked up speed until a collision was imminent. You could see it coming. There was going to be a mess to clean up. All because we didn't have the respect for one another to just pick up the phone, talk, and solve a problem together.
Either pick up the phone or pick up the pieces.
E-mail, text, and Teams messages are super quick and efficient ways to pass information or have surface relationships. They are also awesome for issue expansion, silo generation, and collision engineering. And those are dumb targets to shoot for.
Here's a rule to live by. Talk first (with actual voices and in person when possible) and then when necessary, document the conversation and agreed-upon solution with email. Both are going to happen eventually, it just depends if the conversation is going to be collision cleanup or crash prevention.
If you don't have time to talk through an issue, you better have time to pick up the pieces of the relationship. Pick up the phone or pick up the pieces. Let's not give Jesus another example of his great patience.
P.S. If someone does take the time to call you, or you someone else, don’t be a jerk. Be kind, be patient, be clear...and seek to understand, not to be right.
