A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives, a curated forum for enterprise technology leaders, nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the CIOApplications Editorial Board.
InComm
Collaboration Tech - Every Hero Has a Dark Side
Reduced Travel Time & Expense – Adopting CT at scale significantly reduces travel costs and idle time between meetings. The virtual world removes geographical barriers. This permits immediate and boundless collaboration at a fraction of the traditional cost.
Access to Global Talent– Reduced friction of distance grants access to infinite talent.
CT fuels improved matchmaking between workers and organizational needs. A more worldly workforce means new and existing markets can be better served. CT makes language skills and cultural understanding easier to locate and organize.
More Opportunity – Employment opportunities grow because resources can work from anywhere.
Geographical limitations can no longer deny access. CT means more employee control and less frustrating commutes.
Diversity & Creativity – More global talent means more cultural diversity. Organizational diversity means more creativity. Unsurprisingly, diversity and creativity correlate well with innovation and motivation. Virtual teams are more creative, more productive, and experience less conflict.
Work-Life Balance – Some of the benefits above work in concert to offer a better work-life balance. CT offers more autonomy and inclusivity, and a CT landscape can better accommodate those with physical disabilities or similar challenges.
By enhancing work and personal life, CT facilitates greater opportunity, flexibility, creativity, and productivity. Obtaining a healthy work-life balance is extremely advantageous to everyone, including organizations.
The events of the COVID-19 pandemic solidified CT as a critical component of everyday life. Without it, human welfare, institutional success, and the global economy would have all been at greater risk for collapse. Yet, despite all these benefits, CT has a less talked about the dark side.
Disparity in Management Skills – Team success is highly correlated to leadership experience. Virtual teams are no different. Digital workers are often best led by those with previous experience leading virtual teams. Resources and funds must be dedicated to ensuring all levels of management are properly prepared and lead virtual teams.
Disparity in IT Skills – Resources possess varying levels of IT expertise. This means CT users will range from highly skilled to not skilled at all. Some employees will become irritated, less effective, and may contribute less. This can be avoided by proactively training and supporting all CT users. This practical approach minimizes skill gaps and makes working with CT a more pleasurable and productive experience.
Trust Issues – Lack of in-person interaction makes building teams and fostering trust challenging. Teams that lack strong bonds formed by trust tend to perform poorly. This can be mitigated by encouraging regular face-to-face (F2F) interactions. This means virtual teams should spend more time on video and conduct more frequent team-building exercises.
Adopting CT at scale significantly reduces travel costs and idle time between meetings
Inefficient Communications – CT makes resources lazy. An email or IM is often sent when a phone call or F2F meeting would be better. Prioritization of written communication over F2F interaction leads to frequent misinterpretation. F2F exchanges allow for non-verbal communication, whereas other exchanges may not. Again, promoting the use of video can curtail some of the struggles.
Social Isolation – F2F interaction is needed for more than just clarity. Lack of regular human contact promotes feelings of social isolation. CT users can begin to crave the social connection the traditional office environment offers. Yet again, social isolation is combated by encouraging more F2F exchanges and sponsoring social-oriented events like virtual coffee breaks or happy hours.
IT Costs–Adopting CT at scale also means increased IT costs. Build-out and maintenance expenses must be considered along with current infrastructure capabilities and organizational needs for the future. Hardware, software, training, and support costs can increase rapidly.
Security Risk – A strong correlation exists between CT user base size and IT security risk. As one increases, so does the other. Businesses must invest heavily in security training and infrastructure. These costs are in addition to those previously mentioned.
Poor Status Tracking – Sometimes, CT can make tracking progress difficult. Without frequent F2F interaction, disagreement on status may occur. Moreover, social loafing can exacerbate the situation. This phenomenon is especially common in large teams. Keeping virtual teams to 13 members or less is a good rule of thumb. It helps to emotionally connect employees to work and to subdivide big virtual teams into several smaller ones.
CT’s performance during the recent world events paints a picture of what the future of productivity might look like. But as many learned, the unintended consequences of limiting in-person contact can be overwhelming and damaging. Understandably, many companies have started bringing workers back to the office. And many more are carefully contemplating doing the same. One thing is certain: CT continues to play a major role in the evolution of societal norms. Hence, effective institutional adoption means harnessing the benefits and being forthright, proactive, and diligent in defending against the downsides. Organizations that successfully balance CT’s light and dark sides will emerge as employers of choice in the ever-changing modern workplace.
