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"Spontaneous collaboration can happen just as effectively with a remote staff, but you have to default all your channels of communication to digital ones." So,

"Spontaneous collaboration can happen just as effectively with a remote staff, but you have to default all your channels of communication to digital ones." So, if you handicap your local staff to use only a fraction of their communications capability then your remote ones are just as good? Seriously - I've spent a large amount of time dealing with offshort staff and onshore staff, and staff both in the different buildings, the same building but different rooms, and staff in the same room - and having people sitting right next to each other makes a massive difference to the communication bandwidth. The ability to turn your screen towards a co-worker, say "What do you think of that?" and get a reply three seconds later is _fantastic_ - and simply impossible with remote communications. (Where you can ping them on IM, wait for them to notice the message, start a screen-share, wait for them to accept, and then wave your cursor over the bit of screen you want them to pay attention to. It's effective, but it's nowhere near as fluid as pointing and handwaving.)

kethinov 12y ago
I strongly recommend reading the "Remote" book. There are sections which detail why the "handicapping" argument you just made is a fallacy. As for the workflow you describe being "impossible with remote communications," trust me, it's not! Just paste a screenshot into a group chat. Often this is faster and more effective than physically showing someone a screen anyway, plus it broadcasts the info to a potentially larger group. As for the "wait for them to notice" part, that's just bad collaboration and it happens whether people are there or not. If you're expecting your coworker to be interruptible, s/he can be whether it's IM or it's a shoulder tap if that's the expectation. Meanwhile, in a big crowded open office plan, often times people are just as uninterruptible as remote is so often perceived to be. People put on headphones and strongly resist shoulder taps. Whether you're all in one office or all collaborating over chat, success or failure is about proper communication, not which medium you're using.
RogerL 12y ago
Depends on what that other co-worker is doing. If you are both aligning buttons on a windows form, sure. If the person being interrupted has 10 minutes of debugging state in her head, well, there goes over 1/2 hour of work (10 minutes to build that state, 10-15 minutes to recover from the interruption, another 10 to get back to where you were).
- overgryphon 12y ago
  Which is another good reason for in person communication- you can see if your coworker is intensely focusing and give them space. Pinging them on IM is distracting and interrupts them regardless of what they are doing. Pinging an entire team on the "team chat" is even worse.
  - kethinov 12y ago
    Easy solution: set IM to do not disturb and mute notifications until you're done with the intense focus task.

kethinov 12y ago

I strongly recommend reading the "Remote" book. There are sections which detail why the "handicapping" argument you just made is a fallacy. As for the workflow you describe being "impossible with remote communications," trust me, it's not! Just paste a screenshot into a group chat. Often this is faster and more effective than physically showing someone a screen anyway, plus it broadcasts the info to a potentially larger group. As for the "wait for them to notice" part, that's just bad collaboration and it happens whether people are there or not. If you're expecting your coworker to be interruptible, s/he can be whether it's IM or it's a shoulder tap if that's the expectation. Meanwhile, in a big crowded open office plan, often times people are just as uninterruptible as remote is so often perceived to be. People put on headphones and strongly resist shoulder taps. Whether you're all in one office or all collaborating over chat, success or failure is about proper communication, not which medium you're using.

RogerL 12y ago

Depends on what that other co-worker is doing. If you are both aligning buttons on a windows form, sure. If the person being interrupted has 10 minutes of debugging state in her head, well, there goes over 1/2 hour of work (10 minutes to build that state, 10-15 minutes to recover from the interruption, another 10 to get back to where you were).

overgryphon 12y ago
Which is another good reason for in person communication- you can see if your coworker is intensely focusing and give them space. Pinging them on IM is distracting and interrupts them regardless of what they are doing. Pinging an entire team on the "team chat" is even worse.
- kethinov 12y ago
  Easy solution: set IM to do not disturb and mute notifications until you're done with the intense focus task.