Is traveling an excuse for responsiveness delays in the anywhere, anytime era?
I’ve lost count of the number of times in my workweek that a briefing is canceled, a meeting gets rescheduled, and an email arrives saying, “Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond to your message [of two weeks ago], but I’ve been traveling.”
I feel no ill will about the many disruptions to my earnest attempts to manage my time that are due to colleagues and clients being in the field, at a trade show, visiting a customer in Europe or entertaining out-of-town guests.
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But I do have to chuckle. For many years, I — like you — have been on the receiving end of the hard-driving, mobility PR-messaging blitz that promises that employees can remain productive wherever they are, any time, thanks to the magic of broadband mobile networks coupled with smartphones.
Business cases have been made for how much productivity can be gained by adding an hour here, a half hour there to an employee’s ability to respond, to be flexible, to stay nimble.
So my question, particularly for the many wireless and mobility companies I talk to so frequently, is how come “I’m on a business trip” is a reason to cancel or reschedule a meeting? Aren’t you undermining the whole crux of the “do business from wherever you are” message?
I could take it personally, but I won’t. I understand that you can’t literally be talking to a customer face to face and be on a WebEx with me at the same time (at least, that’s not in my own skill set). So I empathize. And this doesn’t happen 100% of the time, of course, and much still does get accomplished using mobile networks and devices.
But in an age when people know you have the technical ability to respond or participate but you simply aren’t doing so, you should manage expectations about your availability so as not to infuriate your business colleagues and customers.
