Tackling the Email Information Silo

Consider the vast amount of information stored in the emails of your employees, freelancers, contractors, etc. Each inbox is a goldmine of crucial data—from internal communications and project plans to all kinds of decisions and the reasoning behind them, client information, and more. The collective value of this information is immense.

Yet, although email is still the number one business communication tool, it has its pitfalls too:

• Email is an information silo exclusive to senders and recipients, leaving others out of the loop. This can create gaps in understanding and awareness about a project's progress, decisions, and challenges. 
• Newbies on the team miss out on the historical context locked away in past emails. There's no easy way to resend all relevant emails to someone new.
• What if someone leaves the company or project? Their email archive probably goes together with them.
• Even if you get your hands on someone's email archive, good luck searching and navigating that maze. The archives of a popular email client are also notorious for becoming corrupted.

So, how do we handle this? 

The first step is becoming aware that some things are just too important for the fleeting nature of email
The information in your team's email inboxes might be more crucial than the official project documentation. Ensuring access to this information is as vital as access to the project's source code itself.

Next, agree on a solution to make the information more accessible and durable
Preferably in a way that doesn't cause overhead or a collective migraine. We also want to keep the casual vibe of internal emails without turning every message into a formal document.

People will want to take extra care to polish a more formal document, which costs time and usually adds little value to the information itself.

Some solutions (none perfect, all better than ignorance):

• CC a dedicated 'archive' mailbox, either for every email or just the important ones. But humans forget and have different standards of what is important.
• Consider chat tools like Slack or Campfire. Just make sure to organize your channels and keep the funny remarks, jokes, and daily "who wants to go for lunch" chit-chat in a separate channel.
• Ask team members to document decisions and other important information in a tool like Confluence or Notion. This is an additional, more formal step, though, and it needs regular grooming, or it will turn into chaos.
• Use a ticketing system and create a ticket instead of an email. Or make a ticket for questions you receive. A ticket (bug report, user story, issue?) related to what you're discussing may already exist. Systems that loop in email, where you can add to the ticket by replying, are a big plus here.
• Consider a project management/collaboration tool like Basecamp.

However, introducing a new tool or process can be a bit like bringing a new board game to family game night. Some are excited, others confused, and there's always someone asking, 'Can't we just stick to Monopoly?' 

So, ensure that whatever you pick is a team decision and everyone is on board. If you have a project charter or guidelines, make this official and document it there.

Be prepared for resistance
As deadlines approach, people tend to cut corners. Remember to lead by example and remind your team to stick to whatever was agreed upon.

Conclusion

• Keeping information in emails will likely lead to its eventual loss.
• No system in place yet? Agree with the team on a joint strategy.
• Whatever route you choose, lead by example and monitor adherence.
• Include the chosen tool or process in your project charter or general guidelines.

So, as we tackle the email information silo, let's remember the wise words of... um, someone famous I can't remember right now... but I'm sure it's in my email somewhere.