The thread of doom occurs when an electronic conversation spirals into a baffling back and forth where progress is not being made and the parties are talking past each other. As a leader, you can work through this problem by doing a roll up, changing the discussion to live, and asking “stupid” questions to surface the true nature of the issue 1.
References
1.
Reilly, T. How to break out of the thread of doom. at https://leaddev.com/productivity-eng-velocity/how-break-out-thread-doom (2021).