Isn’t It Harder to Use Both Email and Teams? (Episode 58 Transcript)

Hello business listeners! This is the 1,001 Business Problems Solved with Microsoft Teams podcast and I’m your happy hostess, Annie Rynd.

Today, I want to address a somewhat common, although unfounded concern some people have with using both Teams and email at the same time.

If you’ve listened to many of our previous episodes, you know we advocate going all in on Teams and strongly encourage leaders to mandate the elimination of email as an internal collaboration tool.

Teams is considerably more efficient for communication than email. Managers not only forfeit efficiency if they don’t mandate Teams, but they cause their employees confusion and complexity if both email and Teams are used.

So if that’s true – and it is – then what about the fact that you can’t require Teams usage among external collaborators, nor in departments you don’t have jurisdiction over. Therefore, your employees still have to straddle email and Teams.

Here is our thinking on that seemingly contradictory situation.

The problem when internal employees use both email and Teams arises because employees remember that something was communicated or discussed internally but they don’t remember in which platform the communication happened.

So, inevitably, if they look in Teams, they often have to then go to email if they can’t find the message there. After all, the Teams search engine doesn’t search emails.

Yes, that scenario is terribly frustrating and inefficient, so that’s why we strongly encourage the mandated usage of Teams internally. That confusion is completely eliminated.

And what’s more, since Teams is much more effective, a manager leaves so much on the table by not mandating its usage, even if the mandate can only apply internally.

Now, back to the argument that externals will still be using email in most cases, so employees will still be straddling the two platforms.

Well, yes they will be, but since you can’t dictate effectiveness outside your own domain, you still can’t pass up on the internal savings.

And, this second scenario with externals is much less confusing because there is a distinction between the two senders. Whereas the internal only communications have an equal chance of being in email as they do in Teams without a mandate.

If all internal communications are in Teams, and almost all external communications are in email, there is a clear and distinct boundary. If you need to find a communication from internal co-workers, look in Teams. If from externals, then look in email.

Clear boundary, easy-peasy.

I do predict that over time, more and more businesses will begin using Teams for external communications. Here at County Quest Consulting, we work with all clients via Teams and chat and it’s freaking awesome. It’s so much more effective. But, the fact remains that the rest of the business world isn’t as effective as you and I are, and they’re going to continue sending emails for the foreseeable future.

With that said, let me once again give you a power user tip that would be great to share with your employees if they receive many external emails.

There is a “ share to teams ” button in the ribbon on Outlook email messages. That is very useful if you need to discuss an external sender’s email prior to replying to that customer, vendor, or perhaps sub-contractor.

Here’s how it works.

You get an email from an external person. You have to discuss it internally, so rather than forwarding that email to co-workers to discuss, you click the share to teams button and then choose what team and channel you wish to send it to. If it’s urgent, at-mention your team or individual who needs to look at the email asap.

You discuss it at length in Teams, meaning that internal discussion is recorded for posterity in Teams and is available for research and review later. Once you come to a consensus on how to respond to the external person, the receiver of the original email simply replies to the sender without the risk of accidentally sending the internal discussion.

Again, I do believe the best businesses will begin using Teams rather than email to communicate with you and your business, but as of right now, it is not that confusing to use Teams internally even though external collaborators send you emails.

We have had great luck encouraging our external contacts to use Teams to collaborate with us simply by suggesting it, then sending them a Teams chat message to get the thread going. We’ve never had an external contact who didn’t prefer doing so once they tried it.

Please note that sometimes when you start an external chat it may tell you that your organizations are not set up to communicate. No problem…just send your contact an email telling them such and that they should ask their central administrator to toggle that external communication setting so that it’s allowed.

Granted, some companies are so slow to adopt technology that they may refuse, but it’s odd that they would shun something that is less susceptible to spam, phishing, and unwanted messages. I think they just don’t recognize the value.

Anyway, since I’m approaching the six-minute limit…the bottom line of today’s episode is that, no, it is not confusing to use Teams internally and email externally because there is a clear boundary between the two because of who sent the message.

I hope you found this episode useful. If you did, please subscribe and leave us a rating. We’re trying to convert the business world to the awesomeness of Teams and your subscription and rating will help us get the message out.

Until next week, I hope you can get out and enjoy the spring weather. Well, for our Australian clients and listeners, get out there and enjoy the fall weather! Anyway, this is Annie Rynd, signing off!