The text message is the new phone call

If you find yourself saying or thinking something along the lines of 'I can't believe he/she texted that! Why didn't they pick up the phone and call instead?' you need to stop, take two or three deep cleansing breaths, and join the rest of us in 2015.

I thought about this again while reading about a Major League Baseball player who texted an apology to a player on an opposing team who, due to a borderline unsportsmanlike play, had been injured by the first player in a previous game.

Ask your kids about texting (if you have some). Or if you don't, just find someone between say about 13 and 35 and ask them about the kinds of messages and circumstances where it is completely acceptable to use text (or other messaging tools like WhatsApp) as a medium of communication as opposed to more traditional and formal tools like email or (GASP!), the phone.

I have banged on this drum a couple of times before, and I know recently so has KD, the HR Capitalist. But somehow I still think more widespread, comprehensive, and mainstream adoption of text and other kinds of short message service apps for internal and job candidate communications still eludes all but the most progressive organizations. And I think the problem has nothing at all to do with evidence of the effectiveness of texting, (everyone reads their texts, usually within minutes of receiving them), but rather from some old-fashioned, preconceived notion that somehow texting is inappropriate for some types of communications.

But again, ask a 25 year old about what types of messaging would not be 'appropriate' to receive via text and it is quite likely that you will hear a very short, perhaps non-existent list of subjects and topics where a text is not the desired form of communication. And the kinds of thing that might be mentioned by said 25 year old (extremely important family news, a death of a close friend or loved one, etc.), are also not the kinds of things you would email about either, (the easiest, and therefore default method of communication for 99% of organizations).

Most people send more texts than they receive, read and respond within minutes, and for a growing population of your workforce, have grown up with texting and short messaging as a staple of all their digital communications - with family, friends, and if you would just get on board, with organizations too.

And now with the imminent release of the Apple Watch, and its likely popularity (and tiny form factor), short, to the point, and informal messaging will only get more popular (and essential for organization's communicators).

Stop drafting that next 'All employees' email and see if you can't find a way to get your message across in the medium that more and more of your employees prefer, and enjoy. And one that they actually read.

Have a great week!