There are few folks I work with who regularly send me a long-winded email, with their 'points' buried so deep its hard to tease out what they are really asking of me - then they will stop by my office, litereally minutes after sending, to tell me that same email almost verbatim.
Imagine the scene from Big Lebowski:
" BL: So, You're a Lebowski, I'm a Lebowski. That is terrific but I am very busy as I imagine you are. What can I do for you, sir?
D: This rug I have, it really tied the room together.
BL: You told Brad on the phone, he told me. Where do I fit in?
D: They were looking for you, these two guys.
BL: I'll say it again. You told Brad on the phone, he told me. I know what happened. Yes? Yes?
Does anyone have a technical for cutting short this behavior?
Me: "I read your email, where do I fit in?"
Thanks,
Jake
Jake, I wish I had a good
Jake,
I wish I had a good answer for this one. I have coworkers who do this too. I actually used to have a client who would send an email, then call me, then fax (!) me the information.
In my more patient moments I nod along to what they're saying and wait for the "action item" to appear. In my less patient moments I cut them off and say, "Yes, I read all of this in the email. What can I do for you?" Until we can find a way to make everyone match our own personal DISC profile, I think patience is the way to go. : -)
The Dude Abides,
Kate
House Train Them?
I am guessing here Jake, but using the 80/20 rule, there are probably only a couple of people who take up most of your time on this. Is it worth taking them to one side and giving them some feedback?
Try something along the lines that you very much appraciate them going to the effort and time of giving you a full and detailed description/email and that to get the best response from you, they may like to try giving you a 'heads up' in bullet points and an indication of actions required. You can then set up a short 'heads together' once you have read through.
If you don't tell them, they won't know
Ah - the feedback model.
Ah - the feedback model. That didn't immediately come to mind becuase in this case the person is not in my direct organzation. I did get a hint from a mentor I trust, who said she will often say something like:
"I did get your email and understand it - thank you. Do you have something more to add?"
I may try that one.
Jake
Does this happen a lot?
At the risk of being contrary .. I have found that sometimes we are telling the world how to treat us. You should examine if you are doing (or not doing) something that encourages this kind of communication overkill. Ask one of these folks to coffee and inquire about why they think it is necessary.
* Perhaps you don't respond in a timely manner, or perhaps you respond more quickly if they "check in" quickly.
* Perhaps you have a history of missing details in these long emails.
And so on...
If you do figure something out, fix it.
As far as stopping the problem .. there is a forum thread on interruptions that has a number of tactics which should be helpful.
Reply promtply to their e-mails
I agree witih Tomjedrz.
I think your first course of action should be to reply to their e-mail immediately. Even if you don't add anything new, just summarize their points to show them that you have read and understood their message.
I agree with both Tomjedrz
I agree with both Tomjedrz and Timrutter. An approach that I've used in this situation is to say "Yes, I noticed that you sent me an email, but I carve out time a few times per day to focus on and process all of my email. Is there anything time sensitive in your email that can't wait until I get to my my email in an hour or two?"
This also helps to set the expectation for the future that senders should not expect an immediate response from you. And more often than not, the person I'm talking to usually ends up saying "wow, that's a good idea, I should do that too."