Is your team's primary communication channel email? How do you get it right?

[eli_oat]

Email is an asynchronous form of communication. As such, it takes more work on both the sending and receiving ends to get right. Unlike an IRL conversation an email needs to be well structured. Depending on the email it might need to be partway between an expository article and an argumentative essay, whilst not being tooooo long to read quickly all while clearly outlining next-steps and/or questions.

I think communications that are in-sync (e.g. talking in meatspace, phone calls, and sometimes chat) are "easier" because there is more room for misstep, and quick clarification. We're more forgiving when communicating in realtime because we can more easily correct, make inferences, and gesticulate wildly.

Asynchronous communication is a tool, while real-time communication is a biological feature.

This all being the case, email is more work, and takes more time to get right. If email is a team's primary communication channel the team either needs to communicate with one another less-frequently than average, or they need to be dedicated to doing email right.

But what does "doing email right" look like? How can a team get better at email?