E-mail, they say, is the real killer application of the networking era. It’s proving to live up to its reputation. As a form of real-time communication, it defies command-and-control, and cuts through bottlenecks. But speed is a double-edged sword. It makes us drop our guard, preventing us from taking time to consider the content that we receive or send. And secondly, it makes us believe that it is merely an exchange between the sender and the intended recipients.

But think for a moment of the interface. Unlike in conventional letter writing, the digital format has rules embedded in it as ‘options’ --the ability to act on the message, file it, forward it and prioritize it in one click. With snail mail, the tasks of finding an envelope, estimating the cost of postage, and assigning it priorities such as registering it, or sending it faster, takes time. This is often useful. The interval between sealing the envelope and getting to the post office, has saved many people from many blunders. How fortuitous when we double-check the spelling of a person’s last name, or tone down a burst of outrage that may seem so silly one day later. If other functions of life were one-click operations, imagine the consequences!

The two recent victims of e-speed have mixed fortunes associated with hitting that send button.

Exhibit Number One: Philip Harter. He’s an assistant professor at Stanford University, and a somewhat celebrity, considering he has been interviewed by the major news organizations, and even the WHO. His ‘crime’ is that he one day received a typical email, that was so interesting that he forwarded it onward to his friends. The trouble was that his signature file, which resides at the bottom of all outgoing mail, was on this one too. The bigger problem was that the contents of that email was so interesting, that it circled the world, looking like he was its author.

You may have received it too. It’s a bunch of statistics, that essentially says that "If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans….70 would be non-white, 30 would be white, 70 would non-Christian, 89 would be heterosexual…" etc. This was powerful stuff. It ended with some riveting facts, such as "70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition, 1 would be near death…one would own a computer", and urges us to consider how the need "for both acceptance, understanding and education."

As Fast Company magazine reported, Harter was enraged when he discovered that the former president of his university was using similar statistics. But there is nothing he can do about it, except answer his phone with a plaintive "I didn’t write it".

Exhibit Number 2: Neal Patterson, the CEO of Cerner Corporation, a $1.5 billion Company in Kansas City, selling software to the medical industry. He one day arrived at the company to find the parking lot fairly empty, and in an annoyed frame of mind, decided to kick some butt with an email aimed at 400 managers.

(The company employed 3100 people). This was one awesome email. As Brian Chapman, Vice President of a PR firm, Brodeur Worldwide, observed, this creative missive would have never had such an impact just five years ago. It read:

"To the KC_based managers: I have gone over the top. I have been making this point for over one year.

We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our KC-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8AM; likewise at 5PM. As managers -- you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing; or YOU do not CARE. You have created expectations on the work effort which allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you.

NEVER in my career have I allowed a team which worked for me to think they had a 40 hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture which is permitting this. NO LONGER."

The attack continued in intimidating language. Patterson, never known to mince his words, went on: "If you are the problem, pack you bags. I think this parental type action SUCKS. However, what you are doing, as managers, with this company makes me SICK. It makes sick to have to write this directive."

Then, he set a time frame.

"I am giving you two weeks to fix this. My measurement will be the parking lot: it should be substantially full at 7:30 AM and 6:30 PM. The pizza man should show up at 7:30 PM to feed the starving teams working late. The lot should be half full on Saturday mornings… You have the responsibility for our EMPLOYEES. I will hold you accountable. You have allowed this to get to this state. You have two weeks. Tick, tock."

Tick, tock alright.

Patterson, in a fit of rage must have forgotten the interface he was dealing with. E-mail can circle a corporation in less time than it takes the CEO to visit the bathroom. But before his 2-week ultimatum, something else happened. The E-mail got posted on a Yahoo discussion group. In just three days, Patterson’s company stock had dropped to by 22%. His personal wealth had plummeted by $28 million! Naturally, the story was picked up by the major business magazines such as Forbes and Fortune, newspapers such as the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. The company, once named by Fortune magazine's as of the 100 best companies to work for in America, suddenly looked (at least to Wall Street) unstable at the top. All because of one irreverent e-mail.

Patterson wanted action and got it –as a value-added. Like Philip Harter’s e-mail, a careless mouse click on the ‘send’ button, can never be taken back. Speed is a neat thing, when we really need it. But it comes with a price-tag, and a lesson: recipients are often more powerful than senders.

Care to do something about it?

Tick, tock…..