When I was working at Sybase, I had a job at Sybase University for training all new consultants for Sybase Professional Services. We had a worldwide presence and all Sybase consultants, no matter where they were from, would fly to Burlington, Massachusetts for a three week New Hire Bootcamp. Whether they were from England, Korea or Texas, new consultants would have to attend to learn the Sybase culture and technology face-to-face. This was an expensive but very worthwhile investment. So doesn’t this contradict my blog post on “The Virtual Classroom – Saving the Planet“? Not so fast…
There is an argument that initial personal contact is invaluable when attempting to build a team spirit. Subsequent training could be done collaboratively via the internet (and Sybase were leaders in this area) but it seemed important that the first impression be made in person. It did appear to work well. Inter -office barriers were broken down before they had a chance to develop and you had an initial “we’re in this together” mentality. But my opinion is that, if we are creative with the technology, we can even break down these barriers via remote contact over the web. Team building over the internet? Certainly a challenge but not impossible, in my opinion. As the technology gets more sophisticated, I think we’ll make it work. I think we’ll have to.
An example of changing dynamics is using Skype. This service at https://www.skype.com/ is free when used computer-to-computer and is widely used for VOIP communications with surprisingly good quality. I use it to chat to my sister and friends in England from the US. Because there is no charge and I have a hands-free microphone and speakers on my desktop, it changes the nature of the conversation. “Can you hang on while I make a cup of tea?”. You would never say that if you were paying for the call. “OK, I’m back now, what were you saying?”. The calls take on a more personal tone, very much like we are in the same room instead of in different continents. The webcam helps to add to that effect and helps if my kids want to see their aunt and vice versa. This is not new technology but the point I am making is that we CAN achieve a level of person-to-person contact remotely. And as the technology becomes more pervasive it will only get better.
Whether it is “Saving the Planet” or pure economics (or maybe “saving the family”) , we will be motivated to reducing travel and using the public network to its fullest extent. It’s going to happen so let’s start planning for it now…
More later…
Cheers
Brian
