WWPYCBW … “Working with People You Can’t Be With”

Contents at a Glance
– Virtual Collaboration is a Disaster
– Telepresence Needs People Factors to Succeed
– Building a 100% Virtual Business

Virtual Collaboration is a Disaster
One writer laments the disaster of virtual collaboration, arguing that (1) it only works for art, (2) company culture will get destroyed, and (3) remote workers don’t put in as many hours as in-house workers.

Analysis
My response:
(1) I have done virtual collaboration for writing for years,
(2) “company culture” as defined by the author assumes that everyone in a company is together all the time, which is not the case for most, and
(3) it’s about value-add, not putting in the time in front of the clock.

Update … see the comments. I missed the real intent of the article …

Telepresence Needs People Factors to Succeed
Jessica warns (again) that technology to support remote meetings is only one part of overall success.

“Our old motto, “90% people, 10% technology,” is being drowned out by the reflexive action whereby companies/organizations throw technology into the hands that once held airline tickets. It’s not enough. Virtual meetings, including those conducted by Cisco’s telepresence, can be very good indeed but I wager that the technology only contributes a small fraction of the reason attendees deem these meetings as good. It’s the process by which the meeting is conducted, the inclusiveness of their facilitators, the hard work of the leaders – and their exemplary virtual behaviors – that make such meetings sing.“

Analysis
Good reminder from someone who has been researching and writing this for a long time. Hey Jessica, you need to write the “Guide to Effective TelePresence Meetings” 😉

Building a 100% Virtual Business
OrganizedWisdom Health, a business focused on helping people find the right health information, talks about how and why they went for a virtual business with no brick-and-mortar office.

“Since we officially made this transition to Going Green Virtually over a year ago, we have debated the merits of our decision many times. We’ve often asked, would we be more productive if we were all sitting in the same room everyday? Would our team members be better off commuting to and fro? Would our ideas be better? Would we attract better talent? Would we have more or less expenses? Would our business be more successful? Would our product be better? Would we be more happy?

The answer to every question each time we assess our operations is simply, no.“

Reasoning:
– they can access the world’s best talent pool
– increased productivity
– metric-based goals
– less interruptions = less wasted time
– no commute
– flex time
– huge cost savings
– rapid innovation cycles
– no more meetings
– … and 11 more.

Analysis
Now that’s a very different picture to what the first writer is saying.