The plan was to hike Sunday morning, but instead I waited several hours while my husband tried to compose an email 
to his 3 siblings. I heard lots of clicking on the keyboard, many sighs, and even a few oaths before he threw in the towel and declared it an ‘impossible’ task. That’s when I looked him in the eye and said (in my best exasperated wife voice) “Why don’t you just pick up the phone?”.
The reality is that the issue was too complicated for an email – and there were too many people involved. They are selling their father’s house, and they all needed to agree on how to handle the contents of the house, how to best invest the proceeds for their father’s benefit, and who will be responsible for what.
Anything that is going to require a back and forth discussion is NOT an effective use of email. You will spend much more time than you would with a phone (or face-to-face) discussion.
Instead I suggested he set up a conference call, so they could all participate in an open discussion. The four siblings spent one hour on the phone and accomplished more in that one hour than they had in several months of back and forth emailing. If there was a question, it was clarified right away; no waiting for an email response. When the call concluded, my husband came out and thanked me profusely; not only had they agreed on many specifics, but they all felt the discussion had made them feel close again – something that had been lost in all the emailing.
As for me, I was happy we were finally able to leave on our hike. And, as an added benefit, have more time to spend with my husband – the siblings agreed to schedule a monthly conference call to stay current on the house and other filial issues, which should significantly cut down on the emails that were taking up his time on weekends.
If you are unsure how to create a conference call (or are interested in some new options), here are a few resources:
- iPhone – In the U.S., the iPhone can support up to 5 calls at once on AT&T and up to 2 calls simultaneously on Verizon.
- Skype – You can share a group call with up to 25 people, anywhere in the world, and if everyone’s on Skype it’s completely free.
- GUnify – Free unlimited conference calling service for 38 Countries that integrates with Google Apps
- FreeConferenceCall.com – another popular choice.
- InstantTeleseminar – is the service we used for the Biz Summit. Lots of unique features & they offer a 21-day, $1 trial.
Your call to action is to remember that is often faster to get up from your desk and walk down the hall for a face-to-face discussion, or pick up the phone, whenever an email is likely to require more than a simple confirmation or response.
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