Withdrawal from Instant Messaging - too may interruptions

I was talking to a software development partner and I had noticed that they were no longer on skype. I had found it useful in the past to see when they were on skype and logged on. In fact I found it strange that they weren't there anymore, I was even wondering to myself if they had gone out of business! This on reflection seems to me to be a good case of where the sense of their presence was quite real to me.

I had a call scheduled with their MD and discovered that they were still very much in business and after we had finished our conversation I asked him if they were on skype any more. He told me that they had decided not to use it any more as it had become too distracting for them with too many people trying to talk to them througought the day.

This seems to be a re-occuring problem with Instant Messaging (IM).......

• won't it just prove too distracting to people
• anyone can contact my staff anytime
• People will never get things done, never achieve their work goals.

I actually asked someone to remove MS Messenger from their PC in an organisation I ran because they were too busy messaging their friends around the world......... was that the right answer? I certainly have expereinced the problem. 

The reality is that by providing IM you are creating another communciation channel for people and therefore it needs to be managed in a way that is effective for you and your organisation. Everyone already has a number of communciation channels available: The phone, e-mail and the person sitting next to them. These also can be disruptive to a person acheivng their work goals.

What needs to happen is that we need to have clarity about how we will use these different tools and have agreement with our collaborators. I've known people:

• choose not to answer the phone at certain times
  
• not to instantly respond to e-mail
  
• switch their phone off in meetings
  
• wear a distinctive hat or headphones when they don't want to be interuptted by colleagues in their office
• put a do not disturb sign on the door
• encourage staff to only use the phone for reasonable personal use

All of these methods translate into Instant Messaging, at least in principle.

IM has the added benefits of 

• making your office bigger - your physical office is limited in space
  
• opening contact with other time zones
• letting people know when you are in

These can create problems by making your contact pool larger and so you need to learn to use do not disturb on your IM tool at times. 

In my view I would also encourgage people to think of IM as a little less than instant so that people feel comfortable completing their current tasks before responding. 

Finally we need to work with people who we trust to be responsible. If someone is focused and shares our commitment to work goals then we can trust them not to be messaging friends to the detriment of their work goals. Sure they might take a break at times that's healthy but they won't neglect their work and they will experience the benefit of being part of a larger group of people.