Recently I was talking to a friend who heads Marketing for a Financial firm. She asked me "So how much time do you spend in telecons?"
I was surprised and said that I hardly did so. I use the phone primarily to text or to only set up appointments. The actual conversation is almost all of the time face to face.
The reason is that face to face conversation is the richest mode to exchanging information. And while I am a big evangelist of virtual communities and social networking and communication, for some kind of interactions, like building a rapport with a client there is no substitute for direct face to face communication.
So this friend tells me "I am on a telecon with my boss in Singapore first thing in the morning and I end the day with a call with our US office - the call starts at 7 pm and ends around 8.30 pm!"
She goes on "And sometimes during the day, we have to have video conference with other efolks in India, so we go from our office in Colaba (where we don't have videoconferencing facility) to Andheri (where we do). However due to bandwidth problems only five people can be on the video-con. So everytime the 6th person tries to join - one of the people in the conversation actually is pushed out!"
"You know, I think this consensus driven - lets-all-arrive-at-an-agreement mindset is to blame for so many telecons in official work! My husband and I have two different landlines at home for our respective conference calls. I just wish we didn't get invited to all these useless telecons and videocons - and people made their decisions and informed us."
As a guy who believes in collaboration and that people should have a say in the decisions that affect them and their work, this comment took me by surprise. However, it stands to reason if overdone - this approach intrudes and encroaches into a person's family time - she would react this way.
What do you think? How can organizations help people to be collaborative and yet not inflect these issues?
Good article. The real issue is in keeping the business in the business hours. That is made more difficult in a global marketplace because of time zones. There is little chance that a Telecon/VideoCon between the USA/India/Singapore is not going to affect someones evening. It's just modern business and a given that it is going to happen.
ReplyDeleteThe real change that can be mended is the accessibility. There is no reason to have to drive to a videoconference facility, or to only have 5 people allowed on the call. Desktop video conferencing is here, and it works.
At Great America Networks Conferencing we offer QuickVisuals which is able to be used cross platform, just about anywhere you can get an Internet connection. This makes a 1 hour meeting, only take 1 hour. What a concept!
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
how do you do business with 3 continents in the same week, especially when each of the interactions cannot justify the cost of travel? Can travel be sustainable either? The key seems to be building relationships in person to the level where it can be sustained via telecons - I seem to be doing OK not having seen my boss in over 3 months.
ReplyDeleteWe are assuming here that consensus driven , "lets all arrive at a point" is always a synchronous process and you just can't reach the point asynchronously.
ReplyDeleteThis defies the basic and primary benefit of networked world for collaboration. Most of parts in decision making can happen asynchronously and there is always a very small portion ,when all stake-holders need to be present online for face-to-face discussion.
Hope this clarifies our approach.
How do you feel about teleconferencing as a candidate screening tool? Seems to me it may have some limitations, but it's becoming very widely used.
ReplyDelete