Getting together in cyberspace
e-Meeting Of The Minds: The New Virtual Workplace
By Dana Greenlee, Co-Host WebTalkGuys Radio
The days of everyone arriving at the same building at 8:30, working
together all day, and leaving at 5:00 are over. In fact, 50% of employees in many
companies aren't located in the same office, or even city, as their managers.
It’s time to move beyond voice conferences and e-mail. A new company called
Collaboration Architects constructs task-specific “offices” that bring
geographically distributed teams together in cyberspace.
Collaboration Architects designs, constructs and implements online work environments that
help people and organizations collaborate via the Web.
 Dr. Bill Bruck, co-founder of Collaboration Architects,
calls himself a Technology Sensei, because he uses principle from the martial arts to help
companies make that technological change to a more virtual office. Bruck has written ten
books on information technology, like Microsoft© Office, WordPerfect© Suite,
PerfectOffice©, and GroupWise©. He’s also a psychologist and professor of
psychology.
Bruck recently talked about why using the web to collaborate with work groups is
imperative in the new Information Age.
Listen to the audio interview:
Part 1: 6 min @ 20K Stream.
 Real WinMedia
Part 2: 6 min @ 20K Stream.
Real WinMedia
Q. Isn’t using e-mail
enough to collaborate virtually?
Bruck: No really. You write an e-mail. You send it to 10 people. You get
eight different responses. Now what do you do? Do you send eight different replies? Do you
copy each reply to all 10 people? And if someone replies to your reply, should they copy
it to everyone on the list? It’s enough to give anyone a raging headache. A
well-designed virtual office eliminates the frustrating e-mail trail by giving everyone a
single location to make comments and respond to them. It’s a nearly foolproof way to
ensure that no one gets left “out of the loop.” Also, it documents every word
that’s exchanged. When you need to look back and confirm something, you’ll find
the entire “conversation” recorded in one place, rather than having to open six
months’ worth of e-mails.
A virtual workplace creates a “living archive” of documents. Memos, progress
reports, schedules, budgets, press releases . . . all documents pertinent to your project
can be archived in your online environment. Obviously, every team member benefits from
having access to such materials. If someone misses an important meeting, he or she can go
to the archive and review the notes. Successive drafts of documents can be posted so that
the “history” of the project may be easily reconstructed. Decisions are recorded
for posterity.
Q. Is sounds like this virtual work environment can be a more democratic
way of collaborating.
Bruck: It does give everyone an equal voice. Synchronous describes a
one-hour meeting. Asynchronous refers to what happens between that meeting and next
meeting. Let’s say a company holds a brainstorming meeting. We all know the ideas
that are put on the table come from those people that are the quickest and the loudest.
But suppose the company recorded these ideas in an asynchronous online environment and
told everyone they had a week to review them and add others? Quieter folks, or those that
prefer to mull things over, or those that just had a bad breakfast that morning would be
much more inclined to post their ideas. In this way, a virtual workplace is a great
equalizer.
Q: Has the post-9/11 travel apprehension upped the ante for many
companies.
Bruck: I don’t mean to imply that this is a major reason to
establish a virtual workplace, but it is uppermost in many people’s minds. Executives
are more reluctant to fly and many companies are cutting back on their travel, but the
fact remains that work still has to get done! There must be a viable alternative to
face-to-face meetings-and a cohesive, company-specific online workspace designed to
facilitate the right type of interaction is a great one.”
Q: Some business resources are tight due to the economic downturn. Will
going virtual help a companies financial health?
Bruck: Perhaps the biggest and most compelling reason to establish an
online work environment is simply this: it’s nothing less than an inevitability for
corporations destined to survive and thrive in the Information Age.
Today’s business leaders have a simple choice: they can quickly learn how to use
online collaboration technology or they can bury their heads in the sand. Those who choose
to learn increase their chances of staying competitive. For those who don’t,
it’s just a matter of time before they are out of the game altogether. And in
today’s world we are talking about months, not years, to experience competitive
degeneration.
Q: What does the future look like for business collaboration?
Bruck: The electronic workplace is the workplace of the future. Fifty
years from now we’ll be holding long-distance meetings in front of life-size video
screens just as a matter of course. But it has to begin somewhere, and that somewhere is
finding better, more efficient ways to share information. The corporation that learns how
to compete globally-and manage the attendant wealth of information effectively-will
ultimately come out on top.
Q: In a nutshell, what does Collaboration Architects do?
Bruck: We create online work environments that allow people and
organizations to collaborate via the Web. We are “architects” because we believe
that the creation and implementation of successful online workplaces require the same
level of quality thinking and artful employment of the right technologies as do the
creation of physical workspaces. But what’s just as important is that our solutions
take into account the corporate culture-the reality-of each of our clients. Every
organization has its own capacity to accommodate change, and we respect that. We make sure
the solution we recommend is right for that client.
Q: Why would an organization need a virtual workplace?
Bruck: Well, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, as every company is
different and has its own unique needs. But in general, I would say as the business world
has changed, the needs of individual organizations have changed right along with it.
Decisions are much more complex, they have to be made more quickly, and they tend to
involve a lot more people and cross-functional teams and organizational boundaries. And
not everyone contributing to getting the job done is located in the same building or even
the same state or even the same country! Did you know that in some major corporations, 50%
of the employees are not co-located with their managers? A virtual workplace gives team
members a place to “go” and way to communicate and share information when they
get there.
Q: Can you tell us some of your central philosophies?
Bruck: Sure. As I touched on earlier, we take a very “human”
approach to the work we do. We have a thorough understanding of the technical dimension,
sure, but we also put a great deal of emphasis on the social dimension. And because people
are used to working with people in places, make sure the environments we create provide a
sense of place. We use graphic metaphors designed to make a company’s people feel
“at home” in the virtual office, and we also integrate that company’s
business processes into the environment. It’s all about making people feel
comfortable working in cyberspace-which, let’s face it, is an alien concept for
most-so that they can be as productive as possible.
Q: Okay, what happens once you’ve designed the virtual office and
taken it “live.” Is your work done?
Bruck: Absolutely not! (Laughs) Determining the appropriate technology
and building the desired solution is just the beginning. We consult with our clients
during and after the implementation process, coaching and training everyone who will be
working in the virtual office on how to get the most out of it. We’re happy to
conduct periodic evaluations and advise our clients on upgrades that would help them meet
their future collaboration needs even better.
WTG
(Dana Greenlee is president of LoudVox.com and
co-host of the WebTalkGuys Radio Show. WebTalkGuys, a Washington-based talk show featuring
technology news and interviews. It is broadcast on CNET Radio in San Francisco and Boston,
on the web at CNET Radio, WebTalkGuys Radio and via the XM satellite network and on NexTel's
Wireless Web. Past show and interviews are also webcast via the Internet at http://www.webtalkguys.com). |
