Following a lecture on information overload my audience – a management forum in a midsized company – was discussing in small breakout groups norms for improving their messaging effectiveness. When the conclusions were read to the entire forum, we had many of the usual useful suggestions, but one team had a truly unusual contribution. They proposed that when one receives an email with a question that is best answered by someone else in the company, one should not forward it to the appropriate recipient right away. That is, say I’m the expert on left-threaded widgets and I get a mail inquiring about the weight of a right-threaded widget – I should not forward it to Joe, who is the expert on right-threaded ones. Sure, the sender had miscalculated and mailed the query to the wrong guru… so why not correct their error?

Their point was, maybe I can answer the question, even though it isn’t in my area of responsibility? Or perhaps I can look up the weight in question in a catalog that is sitting right there on my shelf? I should – the team was saying – be sensitive to Joe’s time and task load, and spare him the added email if I can dispose of it rapidly myself. After all, I’ve already wasted the time to read it – might as well finish the job if I can…

This was a rare insight: people are so busy trying to get out from under their own overload that they seldom take such a responsible point of view. In one sense, it’s pure altruism – do not do unto others and all that – and in another, of course, it’s prioritizing the good of the organization, which will reflect back on oneself. Either way, it was a really positive idea!