PAASTUB Email Process-Step 3: Addressees

BLUF: Only send email to recipients that need to know the content. The Addressees of your email message should only be the people who will be truly grateful for receiving it. Use the Cc: field of email sparingly. Do not automatically “reply to all.”

The seven PAASTUB steps are:

Step 1: Purpose is Clear: a clear purpose (outcome in mind) is necessary for effective email

Step 2: Action: make it easy for readers to learn what you want

(you are here) Step 3: Addressees: keep the right people informed

Step 4: Subject as Art: make the content clear from the subject alone [makes the message compelling, even better when you can add humor]

Step 5: Take Out the Trash: make the message easy to read quickly

Step 6: Ugly Remarks Edited: keep yourself and others out of trouble

Step 7: BLUF-ing: focus attention with a concise summary

This post describes step 3 of the PAASTUB (pronounced “paystub”) email process: Addressees. It includes:

• the problem with thoughtless email addressing

• managing “reply to all,” and

• to Cc or not?

Step 3 of the PAASTUB process, Addressees, is designed to focus your emails just the people that need to know what’s in your email. An Email Ninja’s bar for the people that need to know is very high:

• there is action for them

• they might do things differently after reading the message contents, or

• someone important in the organization might ask them about it

Thoughtless Email Addressing

Some email senders abdicate their responsibility to determine the addressees who need to know about their email. They give themselves away because they use “reply to all” for every darn email they send. You always know when they cannot be on the group phone call even when they have nothing to contribute anyway. It doesn’t matter whether they do it out of a sense of caution (“gee, all these people might need to know”) or laziness (“I can’t be bothered to think about addressing emails.”). It’s still bad.

Replying “to all” without any thought definitely simplifies the email addressing and makes things easier for the sender. It simplifies what you have to think about when you reply, a practice psychologists call “reducing cognitive load.” Bathing once every six months does the same thing, but don’t be surprised when no one wants to sit next to you at lunch.

Indiscriminate use of the cc field can create confusion about action unless the text of the email makes it clear who is assigned to do what by when. Senders might assume this is clear from context when it isn’t. Why leave this to chance or create a puzzle for recipients?

Managing “Reply to All”

You can specifically note in your original message whether reply to all is appropriate. It is very easy to do. At the top of your original email, make the last sentence of the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) something brief like “Please don’t reply to all with your response.” I cover the BLUF in Chapter 9 of the book and will have a blog post about it following this one.

There are some things you can do reduce the impact of this pernicious practice on your inbox volume. First, politely request to be removed from the email distribution after the second or third email about a meeting you can’t attend. Second, ask people that work for you not to copy you on emails unless there is action or you are about to get a call from a senior leader. You could do this directly, via email (not so good because it is likely to come across as a rebuke), or via an email etiquette guide.

Leaders should inform their teams about what they need to be kept informed about. This is not hard and I did it every time I reported to a new organization. Just send an email to the team, “subject: keeping me informed,” that lists the top five or so things that are important for you to know. This may change from time to time so review the list to keep it up to date for your latest projects and priorities. If someone gets carried away and starts informing you of things you don’t need to know, thank them and gently inform them that they can stop.

One practice I do not recommend is informing your staff that you will only read emails specifically addressed to you. It could come across as condescending. I have obtained good results with reducing unnecessary use of the cc field by publishing an email etiquette policy and reminding people when they stray from the guidelines. My email book has a sample email etiquette guide you can adapt to your needs.

To Cc or Not?

If you aren’t sure who should be informed, you don’t need to be paralyzed by indecision? Certainly don’t default to informing everyone you can think of. Make an educated guess about who should be copied and ask them to help you identify anyone else that needs to know. Use some text like, “If any recipient believes that I left out someone important to this topic, please forward it and let me know so I can fix that.” If you are concerned that you included people that don’t need to know, you can add text like, “I made some assumptions about who needs to be informed about [state the topic] and put them on the cc line. If I was incorrect, please reply just to me and I will remove you from future emails.”

For more details about addressing emails and a full explanation of each of the seven steps, consider purchasing my book “How to: Become an Email Ninja,” $9.99 for the Kindle edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086XMJJ75. My next post on email will summarize Step 4 of the PAASTUB process: Subjects.