A Clean Handoff
The 2008 USA Olympic men’s 4×100 relay team was the first to have all six runners on the team (counting both alternates) to have run the open 100 meters in sub-10 second time. Canada had none. Team USA was the clear favorite for gold. But with a dropped baton they never made it out of the semifinals, while Canada moved on. Watching the athletes perform at this level of competition you realize that it is not enough to have four fast runners on your relay team – every team has that. The winning team is the one who runs fast and also efficiently executes their handoffs. A drop is a disaster. But even a bobble, or a member having to slow down, or turn around, forget it – the race is lost. But with a clean handoff, no effort or time is wasted. The one receiving the baton does so at peak speed and takes it from there. And it’s beautiful to watch.
At Southworks we view our emails like handoffs. We practice and strive to make them cleanly. We’ve all had the experience of emails bouncing back and forth between people adding only a single point when three is required, or answering just one question of the four posed. In our company culture, those emails represent botched handoffs.
To help with this, we follow some simple A-B-C-D-E principles:
- Action. Put items requiring action at the top.
- Brief. Don’t assume the user will page down - keep it to the point and concise as possible.
- Context. Include the required context the reader requires to answer or act on your email. (Yes, some tension exists between supplying the necessary context and keeping it concise.)
- Default. When possible, specify the default action you will take if you do not hear from the receiver within a particular time.
And our number one guide:
- Easy. Make it easy to read and easy to act on.
After all, you just never know when a botched handoff might take your team from being the favorite to simply a spectator.