Project Management Tip #1

I was going to write a top 10 list but the first one alone is enough for a post! So here is Tip #1:

Email Communication
When I see email sent from colleagues to several people in the To line and the cc line, I am still amazed to see that people don't address things to specific people.
An e.g. of a bad communication:
"Yes, I agree. IT needs to check whether we have connectivity via Radianz BT to the exchange. Once we know that, Operations can go ahead and request the appropriate credentials to get us going"

Seems like a normal piece of communication. But it's not very effective. Why?
IT & Operations are huge! If the above email was sent to one person, that person know s/he knows to do something, but if you have a number of people on the list, then (and this is the most pervasive thinking around), everyone assumes someone else is doing it! It baffles me to this day why people who send such email also sit around and complain that nothing gets done...

Much more effective would be:
"Yes, I agree. Steve, can you check whether we have connectivity via Radianz BT to the exchange. Once you confirm that, let Rick in Operations know so he can request the appropriate credentials to get us going."

PUT ACTUAL NAMES against tasks! This actually shows that the delegator knows his/her co-workers and their responsibilities which is nice (don't you feel good if a manager knows that you're responsible or good at something?)  I even use this tactic if I'm not sure who the right person is. I may just take an educated guess. One thing I know for certain: If I address it to the wrong person, that person will reply back *right-away* and say "I don't do that. Jason handles that" and now I know that Jason should be handling it!