This post, which is about how and why we use different tools to communicate, has been gnawing at me for a few months. In thinking of a title, I toyed with “Why E-Mail Sucks”, “The Return of Voice” and “The Devil is the Digital” but, in the end, “Communications 101″ seems most best way to describe the communications conundrum many businesses are grappling with as the world becomes less personal and more digital.

First, a little background: I work for a company, b5media, with employees scattered around the globe. We epitomize the border-less, work-anywhere corporation. We live and breath off communication tools such as Skype, e-mail, the occasional phone call, and rare (but extremely valuable) physical gatherings of the entire team. As a result, we are – for the most part – a digital communications company. This compares (contrasts?) with my own background: I’m a people-person; someone with a lot of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family. And I’m a communicator, both personally and professionally. I enjoy meeting and talking to people. If you sense there’s a bit of a difference between b5media’s communications approach and mine, you’re right. But the reality is the structure of b5media isn’t going to change. So what do you do? You adapt, you push the communications envelope by encouraging people to communicate with you in different ways, and you focus on being more effective and clear when you write e-mails, do instant-messaging and make phone calls.

Note: It’s important to be clear there is a difference between having the “gift of the gab” and communicating well. This post is driven, in part, by my personal goal to become a better communicator. Note II: I’m reading a book called “The Simplicity Survival Handbook”, which offers many tools/techniques to communicate better, including a suggestion that the key to writing shorter, better e-mails is a system called CLEAR: connected (how does it impact current projects and workload); list next steps, expectations (set ‘em), ability (how will things get done), return (what’s in it for me).

With six months of being a Digital Don Quixote behind me (tilting at thousands of e-mails and SMS messages ), here’s my approach on how to use different tools to communicate effectively.

In Person: By far, the most effective and powerful way to communicate. The ability to read body language, facial expressions, intonation, etc. makes person-to-person communications work and work well. It can also change the tone of a relationship. Think about how a long e-mail or phone call relationship took on a new dynamic after you met someone in person for the first time. You may never meet that person again but the relationship will always be warmer, more comfortable…and, well, better.

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