Meaning - the man without e-mail

Nearly four years ago I liveblogged Luis Suarez talking about his nine-month old project to abandon e-mail. How’s it going, after nearly five years? Well, he’s still not using e-mail, and he hasn’t been sacked yet, and he’s lost a load of weight, based on photos from the two events…

His talk was as much an interaction with the audience as a talk, and not really a great opportunity to liveblog – but here are my notes:

• 71% of the employee workforce is totally disengaged. 7/10 don’t give a shit about you. Employees are not their to do your work, but their work. This is your problem
• We’re going to stop using e-mail to bully, to build power, to cover our arses. Half of some employees’ workday goes to e-mail. What a waste.
• By dropping e-mail, he’s both challenged the status quo, and shown people a better way of working through being open on the network. Four years ago, everyone thought he would be fired. Now, he’s featured in their video adverts for their social business offerings.
• He believes in what he’s doing, he owns his work. He lives in his networks.
• He gives a shit about what he does.
• Define how addicted you are to e-mail. Resist the urge to respond to e-mail. Inbox zero is bullshit. It doesn’t exist. Break the fucking chain.

And that was that. Now I suppose I ought to write something about what I took away from the day…