Can virtual communication replace face-to-face meetings?

(Picture from: http://yaelzofi.com/)

Working time-and-place independently does not mean that collaboration with colleagues, teams or customers decreases. Collaboration still plays an important role in everyday work practice. Therefore, an increasing attention is put towards empowering virtual collaboration. In research, virtual collaboration can be divided into three groups: computer-mediated collaboration such as emails, chats and document sharing, audio conferencing and video conferencing. Although, there are plenty of tools that empower workers for virtual collaboration, face-to-face meetings are still considered as the most effective. The face-to-face meeting allows to demonstrate or show instead of only talking and visual sense helps to gather and understand information faster. People are able to read the body language of others, hence make a better connection with the team. Body language and keeping eye contact becomes an issue during video conferencing  when there is no possibility to see others but only the shared document. Therefore, it becomes difficult to receive the message as well as understand how the message is received.

Various studies of technology-enabled collaboration suggest that video conferencing is the most efficient for five to eight participants. In larger groups attention to the body language is lost. It might be one of the reasons why video conferencing is not appreciated by organisations in the same way as face-to-face meetings. So when the size of the group for video conferencing increases, different video features should become available to optimize the communication such as multi-screens where more people can be seen and each decides where to concentrate the attention itself. Suitable video systems in dedicated rooms can solve this issue but it is still difficult with the Internet based conference tools, e.g. Skype.

Another change happening in organisations is that more and more meetings are adopting free-flowing group exchanges instead of traditional one-to-many presentations. It becomes increasingly difficult to identify which person is talking, thus the efficiency of meetings decreases. The variety of synchronous meetings with different tools is both a technical and a social challenge for our collaboration and our experiences with them are worth to share - in good and bad.

Asynchronous communication is also taking place by using various tools. We all have experienced the misuse of common tools such as emails when one forgets to attach the file to the email, replies to all recipients when it concerns only a one person or forgets to switch off auto-reply message. Although it distracts us and does not improve our work efficiency, we still use emails every day. A video by comedians Tripp and Tyler is a very good illustration of problems that every user experienced at least once while using video conference. We have adapted to use the various tools technically and based on our experiences we could more discuss what kind of behavioral codes are typical for us in virtual collaboration.

Virtual collaboration is not a silver bullet for mobile workers. Some researches show that video conferencing cannot replace face-to-face communication in tasks like negotiation. One of the options which could help solving issues related to virtual collaboration, is training workers how to use computer-mediated communication tools properly. Such initiatives could be the standardization of lexicon or communication practices. Another option is a development of services for unified communications (UC). Unified communications is a fast growing market which is driven by the increase of mobility and virtual work as well as BYOD phenomenon. Capabilities of unified communications such as a single-number reach for mobile workers by simply dialing their office number, whether they’re in the office or not should be carefully studied by real estate and service providers in order to offer smart services supporting time-and-place independent work. Demand and markets are there.

Give me a health break!

(Pic credits: http://annazorzou.com/office-yoga/)

The trending discussions of workplace management seem to prioritize health and wellbeing of the work force over excellent technical performance of facilities or optimal working hours.

A recently developed WELL building standard created by Delos, reflects well the current state of the discourse. According to the Delos website, it is the first building standard that focuses on human health and wellness. It consists of seven basic naturally branded concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort and Mind. The certificate claims to be grounded in a body of medical research that has been conducted over seven years. The aim of the certificate is to help create a built environment which would improve nutrition, fitness, mood, sleep patterns and performance of its occupants.

All in all, this trend indicates focus on soft and relative, humane factors of individuals as sources for more efficient and effective working environments. Optimization of spatial resources, ecological solutions, working hours, technical conditions of buildings or ergonomic performance of chairs and tables are shifting towards themes such as natural environments, well-being, fitness and mindfulness. Yoga and mindfulness exercises are increasingly common at workplaces, and employees are given opportunities to do sports or other hobbies during their office hours in search for better performance.

At the same time, also the importance of social well-being inside the community as a concept seems to be in the professionals’ highlighted sphere. Also the ways of commuting to and from workplaces have been on the table in terms of healthy workforce and ecological sustainability. For instance, Ramboll uses examples of IKEA’s free water bus and shuttle services in Brooklyn, and subsidized public transportations of WWF in UK as sustainable ways of commuting. So employees are encouraged to make healthier decisions even on the move.

So has the time come when we admit that doing more in a timely manner does not necessarily add quality to our performance but a well-spent break every now and then supports us more in the long run? Should the corporations increasingly create incentives for common sports exercises and alternative transportation methods?

The core of the development of working environments seems to thus currently be in encouraging personal development of individuals both physically and mentally. Performance of facilities is seemingly reaching its optimal state gaining lesser attention and individual well-being is highlighted more. Are we ready to implement these sorts of changes in Finland?

Is work fluid love made visible?

Maybe we could try to be more empathetic to each other. Would that make us perform better?

On the latter part of Worktech 2015, Kelly gave an inspiring show on the vibe at the workplace. She discussed the importance of hospitality, heart, soul and healthiness in the workplace culture. Commencing with a dancing session and a yoga show-off, she ensured everybody believed that yoga and mindfulness exercises are coming to the workplace. Kylie Bishop continued with focus on the health issues in her presentation of the user-engaging thrive journey they made in designing and relocating their Medibank staff into a brand new building. A more scientific approach to health was provided by David Dunstan who provided reliable evidence on the striking affects sitting has in triggering sicknesses and even death.

Is empathetic community facilitation the future of facilities management? Community and engagement were discussed by the last four presenters: Dermot Egan, Frank Rexach, Caroline McLaren and David Firth. All had the similar kind of main message: community is the core of any working environment and all we can do is to empower that core through facilitation and support. Caroline McLaren asked by the end of her Liberated work talk whether we would be willing to pay for our work day arguing that we are moving from workplace services towards workplace experiences. David Firth ended the conference in clichy but important words: “Work is love made visible. And in case no one has yet said it to you today, I love you.”

Are we really shifting from hard real estate to soft community business? All the presenters emphasized the empathetic and soft side of the traditionally hard engineering-based real estate and building industry. The decision power in the demand side of the coin seems to be extensively shifting to the individuals, who can find the services that match the demands of the personal networks they work in. The Hollywood model of working will enable individuals to shop between the jobs and fulfill their own demands on the go, which is why companies need to be alert and prepare themselves for fluid mobility, both in terms of real estate and staff.

If the presenters are to be believed in order for a company to succeed, an increasing emphasis should be put on community engagement and wellbeing of the workforce. Combined with the low vacancy and utilization rates of the current premises, does this mean a straight transformation of chunk of the facilities budget to human resources?

 

Kiire luo illuusion tehokkuudesta

Miltä kuulostaa ajatus kiireettömästä työpäivästä? Kun sinulta on kysytty ”Mitä kuuluu?”, milloin viimeksi olet vastannut ”Todella hyvää, ei ole yhtään kiire!”? Tällainen vastaus ei tunnu olevan edes hyväksyttävä, sillä se antaa kuvan laiskottelevasta, vastuuta kaihtavasta työntekijästä. Tämä mielikuva pitäisi rikkoa ja pian!

Kiire luo illuusion tehokkuudesta. Tämä on helppo selittää hukka-termin avulla, joka on lähtöisin lean-johtamisfilosofiasta. Lean-kirjallisuudessa hukalla tarkoitetaan sellaista työvaihetta, joka ei lisää arvoa asiakkaalle. Teemme siis turhaa työtä. Myös turha työvaihe on mahdollista tehdä nopeasti ja tehokkaasti. Vielä tehokkaampi tapa olisi kuitenkin olla tekemättä turhaa työtä. Usein työntekijä itse ei voi välttää ainakaan kokonaan turhan työn tekemistä. Esimerkiksi työntekijä ei voi olla tekemättä työvaihetta, joka on turha, mutta joka perustuu lainsäädäntöön. Samalla tavalla työntekijä ei voi välttää turhaa työtä, joka johtuu esimerkiksi työtiloista ja -välineistä. Meiltä työntekijöiltä menee paljon aikaa hukkaan muun muassa huonon viestinkulun vuoksi, mihin saattaa vaikuttaa toimimaton työympäristö. 

Oli syy kiireeseen mikä tahansa, kiireestä pitäisi pyrkiä eroon vähentämällä hukkaa eli turhaa työtä. Kiirettä ei pystytä poistamaan tekemällä samoja asioita nopeammin. Työympäristö ja -välineet voivat auttaa hukan poistossa eli kiireen vähentämisessä. Työympäristöä ja -välineitä kehittämällä on jo parannettu teollisuudessa työn tuottavuutta, joten miksi tämä ei olisi mahdollista myös tietotyön osalta?

(cc) Jaime Fearer

A masterpiece called project work

Worktech 2015, Melbourne, Deakin Theatre

Worktech 2015 in Melbourne was held in the iconic Deakin Edge theater facing the Yarra River on 4^th of March 2015. A variety of presenters provided a wide spectrum of ideas and insights to future of work: from gadgets to workplace vibe, spatial typologies to unworking, sitting as a killer to sensoring people flows. The themes that were most on the table were related to mobility and recruitment, wellbeing of the workforce and community engagement.

Are we heading towards a Hollywood model of work? Harold Becker from Microsoft painted visionary scenarios of how technology could help us to collaborate in a 5-10 year timespan. His team at Microsoft interpret that the socio-cultural change taking place increasingly in the near future derives from three major shifts: connected development, replacement of hierarchies with networks and the break down of corporate offices with less than 60% vacancy rates. He suggested that we are heading towards a Hollywood model of working with which he referred to movie production-type of team recruitment and project-like approach resulting in a demand for services enabling fluidity of both real estate and HR. Consequently, he envisioned manager roles to shift towards more team empowerment and humanization of work. He saw that in an attempt to support the evolution, we need to bring people together, live smarter through focus and flow, and enable friction-free creativity and fluid mobility.

Can there be a united culture for the mobile work force? Phillip Ross talked about Jelly bean working and the internet of things, providing scenarios of buildings as physical networks, quantified self and quantified offices. Tony Armstrong from CBRE discussed the increasingly temporary nature of workforce and highlighted the wellbeing of teams and the role of managers in empowering them through culture and trust building. He also put emphasis on workplace solutions as supporters of teams and a relatively recent standard called the Well Building Standard.

So how can supportive services answer these shifts? Are effective recruitment services and extremely flexible project room leases on-demand the way to go in the worklife of high performing super talent teams? Would it make sense to integrate LinkedIn and Liquidspace to serve the directors and producers of a masterpiece called project work?

Rytkönen
Campus dude, PhD student, an inspired adventurer surfing the waves of randomness