Late in 2000 Bernie DeKoven published an article on the 3M Meeting Network called “Virtual Teamwork: Tools and Techniques“. I asked Bernie recently to comment on how his views had changed since that article and thought I’d share his anwer to that question with you.
[Thank you Bernie for your thought-provoking reply !!]
As web conferencing tools evolved to the point that Microsoft decided to buy Placeware and create its own brand “Live Meetings” the promise that I had seen for this technology largely devolved. Though all the tools are in place, and even cross-platform, what I’ve seen of the way these technologies are put to use is an exacerbation of the same problems that plague face-to-face large business meetings: agendas are rarely clear or followed, actual work, and decisions, are accomplished for the most part outside of the meeting, and the meeting itself is designed more to “broadcast” some presentation or another than it is to gather information or opinion. Regardless of the availability of online facilitation (the technologies of which have also grown more powerful and effective), the vast majority of large meetings (those that involve more than three people), are “informational” and political in purpose and function.
Working together (coworking), as it has become technologically empowered, has followed the same pattern that we have become familiar with in the office place - having its most success outside of scheduled meetings - informally, spontaneously, and most often between a few people who share a similar interest in getting something done.
Technography, the art of computer-enhanced facilitation, is still ahead of its time. And perhaps will remain ahead of its time for decades to come. It is being used to some degree in these small coworking groups, but, like these groups, informally and without any real focus on or knowledge of the facilitation of collaborative process. Given an application-sharing technology, someone might think of “throwing up a spreadsheet” and participants might ask for changes, or take over the driving as needed. This, however, is still rare. I do believe that it will become more of a modus operandi for coworking groups, but that will be a while.
I believe that most coworkers are mavericks. They have learned how, whenever possible, to avoid the office and office politics. They have grown up with computers and don’t like to be taught how to do things. As in computer games, they like to “learn by dying” - invent themselves and their processes as they go along, master whatever software they need without reading the documentation, make their own mistakes, and learn from them. Because this way of coworking is so much more immediate, and so much more satisfying, it will probably persist for quite some time before people begin to pay attention to their own collaborative processes and how they might improve them.
With document sharing provided by mainstream services like Google, video chat supported by Yahoo, conference calling, combined with chat and peer-to-peer file transfer available for free via Skype, audio and video blogging, coworking tools are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and people are beginning to use them with as little forethought as picking up a telephone - a telephone which, of course, is Internet-compatible, GPS-enabled, and can capture photos and video.
Bernie DeKoven
