Not really digital

Email and electronic documents are the management communication tools of choice in most big organisations.  These tools are clanky and inefficient: even the new cloud versions. Think of the problems of following complex, branching email discussions; or of keeping track of multiple versions of a document. 

Email and electronic documents are computerisations of paper-based processes. (My screen flickers momentarily sepia when I cc an email.) I don't think of them as digital tools. 

Over the past few years much better digital tools have become available. Tools like Slack, Asana (which I use) and plenty of others. Many now provide the information governance trappings big organisations need; but uptake is slow.

I see many managers bowing under the load of communication. Ironically, an increasing chunk of it traceable to the changes brought by digital technology. New tools could ease the burden. 

If organisations are to connect digitally with the world on the outside then their managers must do so on the inside. 


See also this I wrote about communication in the NHS