E-mail: gain or pain?
I have spent the last few weeks, between other jobs, putting together an interactive learning presentation on e-mail management. In previous roles I noticed how much strain people were under just trying (and mostly failing) to keep up with their e-mails. It was especially noticeable with international organisations were e-mail was the usual communication method. Somehow what should be a fantastic tool became a stressful monster!
I tried to find external resources to help with e-mail management training, only to be told “lot’s of people ask for that, but we haven’t got anything available”. So I developed a short internal presentation with help from one of the charity’s commercial sponsors and it seemed to help. At least people knew how to manage e-mail more effectively even if they didn’t make the time to do so!
Then at a learning resources exhibition in London earlier this year I came across the Adobe Captivate program. You can ‘capture’ screen shots and merge with PowerPoint slides and other material to create a stand-alone learning presentation which uses Flash Player. Part of the joy of being independent or freelance is that I can make time to enjoy learning new skills. Now I have a web-based learning presentation that people can subscribe to – I think a subscription makes something more valued compared to a freebie and it’s certainly cost me time to produce.
Hopefully people will begin to realise the gain rather than experience the pain of e-mail! Check it out.
