THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 08:23:30 -0700

02 05 04 61 02061401



Mr. Mark Mueller
Manager
MarkMu@microsoft.com
Windows 2000 Support
Applications and Performance
Microsoft Corporation
16011 NE 36th Way
Box 97017
Redmond, WA 98073 9717
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Subject:   Email Delivered Out of Sequence Hampers Communication
Email for Case SRX020519601479

Dear Mark,

Thanks for your notice on Wednesday, June 12, 2002, of having received re-submission of a letter to Brandon on Tuesday, June 11. Since I received your notice just this morning on June 14, two (2) days after it was sent, this confirms a variable lag in delivery of mail is occurring that complicates communication. You noted in our call on June 12 that communication is a big challenge.
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Part of the problem is variable delivery of the mail, when several people are contributing, and they receive mail at different times. It is not a big deal when the variance is a few minutes, but hours and in this case days, cause a big impact on teamwork productivity and morale.
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Last night for example, Brandon was concerned because he did not receive requested information, and this conveyed an incorrect impression that certain initiatives he was pursuing on this case were not being followed by the rest of us.
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Turned out the information was timely submitted to Brandon, but, as with you on June 12, and now again today with me, per above, there was a lag in delivery on some mail, while other mail is being delivered promptly, with the result that the flow of communication is received out of sequence. Since sequence is a critical part of human reasoning (see POIMS), this significantly compounds the challenge of communication that you mentioned occurs at Microsoft, and of course everywhere else.
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Drucker, for example, says that people have just given up on communication, because the range of problems is overwhelming.
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Being aware of the problem, and reacting, as Brandon did, to inquire about things that seem out of step with plans, helps get things done by taking complementary, rather than conflicting, action that can help see us through, until the mail gets back to timely delivery.
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Just want to thank everyone for sticking with this thorny issue despite it seeming at times like the gods are against us.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net


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Copy to:

  1. Cannon, Brenda, BrendaCa@microsoft.com
  2. Robinson, Brandon, BrandonR@microsoft.com
  3. Jones, Morris E., morris.jones@intel.com


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Mark Mueller wrote: > > Received > > -----Original Message----- > From: Rod Welch [mailto:rowelch@attglobal.net] > Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 11:04 AM > To: Mark Mueller > Cc: Brenda Cannon; Brandon Robinson > Subject: Re: Email for Case SRX020519601479 > > Mark, > > Here is the link to the letter to Brandon yesterday, which we > discussed a few minutes ago this morning.... > > > http://www.welchco.com/02/05/04/61/02/06/1101.HTM#0001 > > The following confirms our telecon, and illustrates one way to tackle > the communication challenge you cited this morning.... > > > http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/06/12/082944.HTM#0001 > > Please send me a reply to let me know you received it. > > Thanks for considering this. > > Rod > > PS. By copy asking Brandon and Brenda to forward to Mark, in case we > somehow have Mark's email address incorrect in the record >