During the past year I was a corporate trainer for a healthcare provider. The department I worked for was headquartered in Dallas, my boss was in Florida, and I worked part of the time from my home in Santa Cruz. Communicating primarily via phone, email and Internet with my boss, as well as some of the employees I was training was definitely a learning experience for me. I came away with mixed feelings about the effects of such a heavily mediated environment.
I enjoy personal interaction, which is one of the reasons I had accepted the trainer position, but corporate budget cuts were channeling an increasing amount of training to electronic media. Although on line training is definitely cheaper, my feeling was that employees were often reluctant to ask questions because they were concerned about how they would sound to strangers in another city in the "electronic classroom." Training assessments were focused on being able to reproduce tasks, rather than understanding "how things worked," which limited their effectiveness.
On a personal level, mediated communication with my boss made for an awkward relationship and frequent miscommunication. Occassional personal contact would have made a significant positive difference in how I felt about my boss, and my job.
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6 comments:
I agree with you, nothing can replace face to face conversation or training. As part of my job I regularly have to attend online sessions on new products, demos etc., and most of the time I lose track of the conversation. This never happens to me in face to face meetings on in my classes. I feel Eye to Eye contact has the magic of holding ones attention.
Also, we constantly have conference calls with teams from other countries. Most of the time there is only listening and very little questioning or conversation. But it is not the same when we meet the same people in person, when we have our yearly planning meeting.
One of the reasons I am taking this class is to improve my communication skills through the electronic media better and learn to communicate efficiently with out misunderstandings.
The communication imperative suggests that we use new communication technologies in such a way that they meet our goals. Consider the ways in which we've developed online technologies to provide for a more robust communication experience. When the precursor to the internet was developed for scientists to exchange data, researchers found users were exchanging information about themselves as well--their interests, what they did over the weekend, their kids' birthday parties. Also, consider who's privileged in face-to-face communication and those who are not. And misunderstandings can occur in any interaction, no matter which medium is used. In person isn't the "best" way to communication--it's just one way.
I think there is hardly anyone who would disagree with your claim that communicating in person and face-to-face is the best form of communication. It is certainly the very best way to be on the same page as the other person.
But as you've rightly pointed out, today's technology has made it possible for communicating across the expanse of the country, or even across the globe. I communicate via video conferencing with my colleagues in Germany on a routine basis. This means of communication admits of far fewer errors than merely talking on the phone (audio only) because the people communicating also perceive the non-verbal forms of communication such as body language, which might indicate urgency, lack of interest in a certain topic, etc. This has been a tremendous benefit in clarifying subtle concepts instead of relying upon phone or email, besides being a great cost-benefit to the company because the problems and delays caused by miscommunication have dropped significantly.
In person isn't the "best" way to communication--it's just one way.
As a CMC scholar, I would have to concur. While face-to-face communication is the most familiar and comfortable form of interaction for many people, for others, it is not nearly so clear-cut. Through my online travels, I have met many brilliant and charismatic people who are far more confident talking with their keyboards than with their voice, and are very adept at expressing nuance and emotion textually. In addition, not everyone's learning processes work the same way; the eye to eye contact that holds one person's attention may be torturous to another person, who would be much better served with videos or documentation that he or she can pursue at her own pace, or even while completing other tasks. Finally, for many people, 3D environments are creating an ever-greater sense of presence, to the point where arguments about missing non-verbal cues will soon seem antiquated.
I have truly become to believe that there are different types of communication competencies, and that online communication is not a hindrance to so-called "real" communication. Far from it. Online communication offers a multitude of expressive opportunities for those who may not fit into traditional communicative models, and expands the communication repertoire of others.
I work for an organization that promotes working remotely and we employ many contractors who only work remotely from all of the world. Working in this environment was very different for me and something I am still getting used to. I finally met a contractor in person the other day after working with her for almost a year. I felt like I already new her because I had seen her picture and had so many conversations with her over the phone. It was very strange finally meeting her in person because I had created an image in my head of who she was. I think that working this way creates a lot of “misses” in the workplace: miscommunication, misrepresentation, misunderstanding. While I see the need for using the technologies available to us to communicate to others in other parts of the country and world in this increasingly global economy, it is still a practice that takes some getting used to and one day we will think back and think “how did we ever not communicate without this? My company is creating this product that makes it seem like you are sitting directly across from the person you are speaking to even though you are a world away. It brings the face-to-face communications back to the global workforce with out traveling to truly be face-to-face. Check out a video here
I agrew with you, by far nothing can come close to face to face communication. Although i have no work experience, but i believe it must be very challenging. There is a different level of understanding when the communication in person, and its easy to clear doubts if any.
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