While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write, on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.

Mary Mitchell, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette as quoted in “‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations,” New York Times, Nov. 26, 2006.

E-mail sign-offs can set the tone of the communication and can even undercut the intent of the message according to Mitchell.  A product complaint letter, for example, sent to a company signed off with “warmly” miscommunicates the customer’s displeasure with the product. 

How true.

Unfortunately, employees unknowingly create potential smoking gun documents everyday when they fail to write thoughtfully.  Slap dash communications create misunderstandings.  Misunderstandings create frustrated customers and deal partners.  They can escalate into lawsuits in a heartbeat or at a minimum detract from the business relationship.

The easiest way to avoid litigation and dented relationships is to write clearly — to say what you mean and mean what you say.  It’s one of my 12 rules for avoiding smoking guns.

For more information about how to avoid smoking gun documents and the benefits of legal literacy please join me for the BNA audio conference on Legal Literacy this Thursday, November 20, 2006.  Reserve your seat today. 

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the States.   It is a day for celebrating the bounty of the harvest — a day for for remembering all the blessings in our lives. 

As the turkey roasts in the oven, I started thinking about the blessings in our business lives.  How many of those will be recited around the Thanksgiving table this afternoon?

And what about those corporate blessings?  Are they measured solely in terms of short-term profits?  Or does long term sustainability count too, even if it is at the expense of short-term profits?

What about the employee who identifies a business legal problem?  Are they marginalized as non-team players, or worse yet, penalized for making the boss look bad?  Or are they welcomed with open arms?  Or shown the door?

A few weeks ago the New York Times article about saints pointed out that several saints were mistreated by the very church they unselfishly served.  Those faithful servants of the church were more interested in the institution than a particular Bishop’s ego.

When it comes to compliance and corporate governance business leaders should thank those employees with the courage to stand up and ispeak out about business legal problems while they are still small and managable.  The failure to maintain a business culture where employees are free to speak out means that problems fester and grow until they reach a tipping point.  If it then spills onto the front page of the national news your problem has just grown exponentially.

So on this day of Thanksgiving my hat goes off to those brave corporate souls who are willing to raise an unpopular issue even though it may raise the ire of the corner office.

For more information about the relationship between open communications and the reservoir of unmanaged legal risk please see Chapter 12 (How to Stay Centered: The Role of Ethical Leadership) of The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law (Jossey-Bass, 2006). 

It’s perfect for the manager or executive on your holiday gift list.  Remember — nobody wants to be a plucked turkey.