Email as a trigger

In a previous post, I wrote about how email can be interpreted differently than it was intended. Today, I was reminded about how sometimes email can be interpreted exactly as it was intended, but the side effects are far beyond what was intended.

The scenario? Team A and Team B. Staff member on Team A need staff member on Team B to do Some Stuff. Team B staffer is chronically slow (or has chronically bad quality, or chronically bad follow-up). Time goes on and Team A staffer starts to get heat for performance. At some point, Team A staffer decides that it would be A Good Idea to escalate. However, Team A doesn't understand that escalate means to escalate in his chain of command and decides to drop an email to... say... his Team B counterpart's boss' boss... calmly explaining how these tasks are important to getting things done, etc, etc.

In this case, the message was received exactly as it was intended. However, the sender didn't understand the implications. And now, this message has set in motion a chain of events... The big boss is embarrassed... The big boss makes a phone call... who makes a phone call... And very soon the Team B staffer is getting a hide-chewing. Yes, the work gets done.

And in that, and that alone, has the Team A staffer been successful.

So I'll try to remember that when one lobs an email to high ground, it not only makes an impact when it lands, but also when it rolls downhill.