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With the continued movement of work around the world, and with the pressures for reduced travel, it's easy to find yourself interacting with co-workers who are only represented by electronic simulacra (voice, text, video, or avatars). What does this mean to human interaction, to trust, and to effective collaboration?
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
When your Coworkers might be Virtual
David Singer - IBM
Sonoma State University Computer Science ColloquiumOctober 29, 2009
© 2009 IBM Corporation
I started my IBM career in 1976 at IBM Boca Raton
© 2009 IBM Corporation
What was the environment like?
■ My team had offices in the same wing of the same building
■ Meetings were held in conference rooms near our offices–We rarely met with people in other parts of the Boca Raton site, much less
elsewhere in IBM
–Any meetings with non-local IBMers required air travel
–Conference rooms were a scarce resource
–But meetings were a small part of the work week
■ Our computers were in a shared raised-floor lab near our offices–Even our terminals were in shared areas
–We didn't have e-mail
■ Almost all IBMers worked in a development lab, assembly line, sales office, or at a customer location
■ We had frequent parties after work to celebrate promotions and development milestones
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Today, I work at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose
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Except when I work from home
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Or in a virtual space
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But I spend most of my time here...
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...and here
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What is the environment like?
■ My manager's office is in Somers, New York–I've never been in it
■ My closest teammate is in Austin, Texas–I haven't seen him in person in three years (and we weren't teammates then)
■ I haven't had an in-person meeting about my “day job” in months–But more than half of my calendar is taken up by meetings
• Many of those happen outside the “normal” business day to accommodate global teams
–I've only taken one air trip for business since August, 2008
–Conference rooms are easily available
■ My computer is usually within reaching distance–I have e-mail. Always.
■ About one-third of IBMers officially work from home or are mobile–And many of the rest of us work from home at times despite having offices
■ We still celebrate, but rarely in person
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Much has changed, but some things are constant
■ Success requires collaboration across (and between) teams
■ Teams are made of people
■ People work better when they know (and like) each other
■ Knowing other people requires interacting with them
■ Richer interaction builds social capital
■ Social capital encourages collaboration
■ How do you build social capital when direct contact is limited?
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Widely-dispersed teams have been around for a long time
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But today, Presidents and Prime Ministers aren't the only people coping with global teams
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And living in California poses its own special challenge
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Bridging the contact gap
■ There is no substitute for real human contact
■ But technology can–extend the effectiveness of occasional real contact
–increase the degree of involvement when real contact isn't possible
–and even help compensate for language differences
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How do I stay connected with my extended team?
■ Phone calls
■ IM
■ Blogs
■ Forums (newsgroups)
■ Videoconferencing
■ And some less traditional tools...
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Pictures help humanize people you don't see in person
■ IBM's corporate directory (BluePages) allows (and encourages) every IBMer to post a picture, which is used in many applications
IM
Blogs
Communities
Invitation Lists
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Some collaboration tools have a clear purpose
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Some collaboration tools are less structured
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Social Hours – a chance for chance conversations
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“Seeing” colleagues in the real world (Facebook)
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Chipping away at the aftereffects of the Babel Project
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The key is to remember that there are PEOPLE out there
From Sacha Chua's “7 Tips for Remote Presentations That Rock”
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Thanks!
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Finally, a word from our sponsor....
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