Last summer, Scott Dockter had an epiphany. Dockter, CEO of PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services, an Alpharetta, Georgia, provider of distribution and call center management services, realized that his business communication had gotten out of control—particularly when it came to his e-mail. “I noticed that I’d e-mailed my assistant, who has a desk about 20 feet from me, about seven or eight times in one morning,” he says.

Dockter realized that the project he and his assistant were collaborating on could have been resolved much more quickly if he simply got up, walked to her desk and spoke to her. Instead, he was spending time pecking out e-mails, waiting for a response and then replying. Worse, the episode suggested a deeper problem with his company’s corporate culture. “We’ve only got 275 employees, but we were beginning to act like one of those huge companies where everyone’s a number,” he says. “We were becoming isolated from each other.”

Dockter took what’s becoming an increasingly popular step among companies large and small: He instituted “no email Fridays” to encourage his employees—and himself—to step away from the keyboard and actually engage with each other. Some employees resisted at first, but Dockter reports that the policy is now hugely popular—and that its effects have spread far beyond Fridays. The company has experienced a 75% reduction in e-mail. Use of the reply-all function— one of Dockter’s pet peeves—has been almost entirely eliminated. “People have come out of their shells and become more creative,” he says. “We are communicating better and building stronger relationships, both internally and with our clients.”

Whether your business is auto repair, interior design, manufacturing wheelbarrows, or selling real estate, communication is at the heart of what you do. Poor communications— pointless meetings, endless e-mail threads and three-hour conference calls—sooner or later lead to lower profits as growing use of new communications tools creates information overload and small misunderstandings turn into crises. The National Commission on Writing estimates that problems caused by poor writing alone cost American companies as much as $3.1 billion annually. Add pointless meetings and aimless conference calls, and the amount of money being lost due to ineffective communication is even larger.

Your firm can be part of the solution. The key, you’ll find, is to choose the right medium for the message—and use that medium appropriately. These tips will help:

E-mail 101
As Scott Dockter’s example demonstrates, e-mail has become the default medium for a vast amount of business communication. As a result, inboxes are overflowing—one researcher found that the average American professional spends 40 percent of her day dealing with e-mail. But lost in all those new messages is a key point: “E-mail can be one of the most effective communication and collaboration tools,” says Itzy Sabo, an Israeli software developer who writes a blog called Email Overloaded. “But organizations plagued by bad e-mail cultures are just throwing away its potential benefits.”

E-mail makes sense under these circumstances:
You’re sending brief, time-sensitive news. It can be as mundane as an announcement that everything unlabeled in the fridge will be thrown out at 3 p.m. or as significant as notification of a meeting to discuss year-end performance and profit-sharing. “E-mail is great for straight-up informational communication,” says Sara Roberts, CEO of Roberts Golden Consulting, a San Francisco firm that provides communications consulting to Fortune 500 companies.

When you want the details in writing. E-mail works well for follow-up. After a meeting or a conference call, send all participants a message that recounts deadlines, responsibilities and so on. If that message generates a flurry of replies— there is disagreement about who’s doing what, or team members are continuing a discussion that began at the meeting—it may be time to schedule another meeting. (You’ll also want to reconsider your approach to meeting planning; see below for details.) “E-mail is ideal for distributing information to large groups of people,” says Mike Song, author of The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You (2007). “It’s not the best way to have a conversation.”

Your message does not contain complex nuances or tones. Sarcasm, jokes and irony are not easily communicated in print, especially in a fastpaced medium such as e-mail. Think you’re better at it than most? You’re not alone—but you’re wrong. According to research by Nicholas Epley, associate professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, most people overestimate their ability to convey their intended tone in email. “E-mail provides no context,” Epley says. “You are unable to convey intensity of emotion; does three exclamation points mean you’re three times as excited?”

Once you’ve decided that e-mail is the best way to go, follow these tips to write an effective message:
Consider the subject. Use clear, thorough subject lines to help your correspondents prioritize your message. (Bad subject line: “Idea.” Good subject line: “Idea: Add performance incentives to sales reps’ compensation plan.”) 20

Abbreviate. Implement abbreviations such as NRN (no reply needed) to avoid receiving messages whose entire text is “thanks” or “ok.” Or write a brief message using only the subject line and close it with EOM (end of message) so your recipient doesn’t even have to open the e-mail.

Avoid “cc” and “reply all.” Think carefully: Who really needs this information? Better yet, specify in the top of your message what information is relevant to each recipient.

Start with what’s most important. Use your first few sentences for the information your recipient most needs to know; work your way down to the less important material. This way, even if a recipient doesn’t read the whole message, she’s gotten the crucial information.

Keep it short and simple. If you have several items to communicate, use bullets or lists to make your note friendlier to your reader. If a message you’re writing is getting lengthy or complex, stop writing; pick up the phone and call the person.

Take a meeting
When a new e-mail message pops up in your inbox there’s the possibility that its contents will reveal something new or exciting. The same can rarely be said about a meeting. Still, meetings can create great results—if you manage them well.

Consider scheduling a meeting in the following circumstances:

You know what you want to achieve. Aimless meetings are the bane of employees everywhere. A good meeting has a clear purpose. Glenn Parker, author of Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings That Get Results (2006), suggests asking yourself a simple question: “What’s the one thing we need to achieve to make this a successful meeting?” If you can’t answer that question, a meeting may not be the medium you need.

You have complex news to communicate. Meetings are right for announcing major changes, such as restructuring or downsizing. You can communicate the information to a large group of people at once, and you can take questions to be sure that your message is clear.

When there is strength in numbers. Brainstorming, for example, works best when people piggyback on one another’s ideas. Sure, you can do it over the phone if necessary, but sometimes it’s best to gather a small group around a table. “Give people time to prepare,” adds Pamela Schindler, professor of management and director of the Center for Applied Management at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. “Otherwise, they’ll have to give you ideas off the top of their heads.”

Once you’ve decided on a meeting, here’s
how to make it more effective:
Set an agenda. Since you know what you want to get out of the meeting, work backwards to figure out what agenda items must be included to achieve that result. When you write the agenda, allot a specific amount of time for each item.

Figure out who should come.According to Glenn Parker, your goal should be to invite as few people as necessary to accomplish your goals; a group of four to seven people is the ideal size for decision-making. Fill them in on your plans. Send the agenda at least 48 hours ahead of the meeting time.

Put someone in charge. Appoint a facilitator to keep track of the time allotted for each agenda item. You don’t need to be slavish about it, but remember to keep the meeting moving forward toward the end goal. And if you’re the boss and the facilitator, says Parker, refrain from bulldozing the other attendees with your opinions. “Your job is to make sure you elicit whatever ideas you can from those attending the meeting,” he says.

Wrap up. Leave time at the end to discuss next steps—which don’t always have to include another meeting.

Telephone tag
Remember the telephone, that device that sits on your desk and magically connects you with another person in real time? It does, in fact, still exist. And although your phone has taken a backseat to e-mail, the phone is achieving new prominence these days thanks to growing numbers of telecommuters and other remote workers, as well as a growing awareness of how indiscreet emails have cost CEOs and other executives their jobs.

Here’s when a phone call makes the most sense:
You’ve got something sensitive to discuss. Whether it’s a discussion of movwork performance or an explanation of why a particular request has been denied, complicated topics that create emotional responses are best handled by phone or in person. “Sometimes people aren’t afraid to e-mail a coworker with a criticism and cc the boss,” says Sara Roberts of Roberts Golden Consulting. “If you have a problem with someone you should just pick up the phone and talk to them.”

The e-mail you’re writing has gotten really long.“You can convey emotion in an e-mail to a certain extent with bold letters and abbreviations and punctuation, but when it gets to the point where you’re spending a lot of time crafting the message, maybe you should just pick up the phone,” says Gil Gordon, a telecommuting expert and the author of Turn it Off: How to Unplug from the Anytime- Anywhere Office Without Disconnecting Your Career (2001).

You need to connect. There is social and professional value in actually speaking with your colleagues and clients. There is also the opportunity to save yourself some embarrassment: Roberts exchanged e-mails for months with someone named Drew. “I automatically assumed it was a man. When I met her I said, ‘Where’s Drew?’ She said, ‘I’m Drew.’ The whole experience reminded me of why I sometimes need to pick up the phone.”

You’re collaborating with people who can’t meet in person. A conference call—whether it includes a video link or just an old-fashioned phone call—works well when you need to create consensus, brainstorm a new organizational structure or plan a client presentation with colleagues working in home offices or remote locations.

If you’re running a conference call, here are a few things to consider:
Do your homework. The fact that you’re not meeting in person is no excuse to avoid preparation. “The things that make a good meeting— such as an agenda, a focused outcome, and a leader—make a good conference call,” says Gil Gordon.

Share the wealth. Think ahead about what handouts, if any, you’ll want to use. Send them at least 24 hours in advance. “Everybody really needs to have the same documents in front of them,” says Schindler of Wittenberg University.

Be specific. Don’t ask open-ended questions that prompt everyone to talk at once.… or no one to say a word. Direct your questions to one person at a time: “Bill, what are your thoughts on the proposal?” Make sure you hear from everyone. “If we’re all sitting around the room I can see if one person is being real quiet. But in a conference call it’s less obvious when one person isn’t involved,” says Gordon. “The leader has to be keeping a mental roll call.”

IM 4 U
You may think that instant messaging, or IM, is for kids. But an increasing number of businesses are finding that IM can be cheaper and more efficient for some purposes than e-mail.

Here’s when IMs are most effective:
You need a relatively simple piece of information. IM works best for a quick exchange on a simple topic. “Using email for back-and-forth conversations, you get these threads that go on and on,” says Adam Reiser, co-founder and chief technology officer of Pizza.net, a Delray Beach, Florida-based pizzaordering search engine. “With IM you don’t have to worry about that.”

You need a quick answer. If you’re on a conference call and need a bit of information from a colleague but don’t want to wait for an e-mail, IM him. You’ll get the fact you need without interrupting your call. You are dealing with a technologically savvy clientele. Although business use of IM is growing, it is not yet ubiquitous. So don’t assume that all your clients have adopted IM at the office.

Some tips for using IM effectively:
Keep conversations short. IMs work well for a quick exchange of information. After a few IM exchanges, though, pick up the phone.

Communicate your availability. Use the status indicators on IM—“away” or “busy”—to keep colleagues posted on your whereabouts.

Keep it appropriate. “IM is nothing more than turbo-charged e-mail,” says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute in Columbus, Ohio. “All the same rules apply.”

Don’t use too many abbreviations. CU L8R may be great for your kids, but it’s not appropriate in the business world.