Collaboration 2.1

"The shift towards remote and hybrid work isn’t doing us any favors in the collaboration department"

The lady of this observation worked early in her career for (some now huge) Silicon Valley startups. Now she writes 'about the ways organizations coordinate'.

I am bitterly reminded of the obvious parallel; Digital Transformation.

That most recent of pre-2020 burning business buzzword bandwagon.

All such initiatives that merely replicate the analogue in a digital mirage die.

And that's a lot of corporate career deaths.

Having touched on this topic from a Sales perspective just a short while back, the above opinion moves me to address to issue of the video collab.

You'd've thought the mere fact that so many companies are shifting to - or even steadfastly starting as - #remotefirst would be some kind of indicator.

The world is not, after all perhaps, flat.

Or is it?

Victims readily repeated.

Remote/Hybrid fatal to; casual collisions, incidental information exchange, mentoring, onboarding, agreement, problem solving, relationships.

The 'collaboration department' seems fairly broad in scope.

Maybe that's the point.

If it alludes to any activity where more than one person's input - no matter what stage, intimacy or duration - is required, then I am of the firm belief that 'remote' holds sway for a significant proportion of previously non-remote tasks.

Yes, not being in the same block of air as another person can mean you gain better results as when physically sitting side-by-side.

The trick though, is threefold.

Recognising where such situations arise, shaping work patterns to make them remote, and knowing what techniques and approach make such forums fly.

Far too few are down this road to any revealing degree.

For instance, one conversation I've had several times since The Great Unlocking, is that salespeople had three main mediums to communicate with buyers.

In-person, phone, email.

Now, we have a fourth; video.

By this, I mean live video calls. So it is perhaps a category label that could do with some expansion. There's the division by sync/async contact to consider.

The point remains iron-valid.

You know the prospect touches, actions and activities for which video results outshine where once done by one of the elder trio, and you're outpacing your competition for sure.

You can absolutely make remote/hybrid do you real favours in the collaboration department. Are you working on it?