What most people think of as lonely people hiding behind computer screens will soon be a new world order. And it’ll soon be a powerful business advantage in all industries, not just among web professionals. Or it will be a huge disadvantage if you’re a late-adopter.
The texting teens, tweeting twits and pimply-faced nerd stereotypes will soon be upgraded to mansion-owners and Ferrari-drivers when more of those same folks become Presidents, PhDs and CEOs. And those that still use fax machines are going to be left in the dust.
The “nerds” — a positive term, I think, for a group of which I proudly consider myself a neophyte member — are winning because of three distinct advantages: asynchronous communication; the productive, personal nature of text; and most importantly, knowing when to use what.
Asynchronous Communication
A hour-long meeting with three people is one hour long. But it costs three person-hours. And because it’s face to face, our socialization compels us to hi-how-are-you niceties that produce nothing. And personal agendas can redirect meetings, or needs-to-be-heard about something irrelevant can waste more time still. So let’s bump up the cost of that hour-long meeting to, realistically, nine person-hours. Still wanna get together?
But anyone who has genuine control over their time, their email and their keyboard is kicking ass in a serious way just by successfully using asynchronous communication — essentially leaving messages for people to reply to when it’s convenient and most productive for them. It’s not only productive, it’s a hell of a lot more respectful than knocking on someone’s door and knocking them out of their “zone”.
As a result, nerds aren’t having one meeting after another, but 10s and hundreds of meetings at a time. And rather than wasting nine person-hours, they’re wrapping things up in nine minutes. Total. All communicating participants combined.
Text is Productive, Text is Personal
People transitioning from socialized methods of communication into text-based email will over-use “hi” and “regards”, etc. But once a relationship has truly become close, personal and productive, that waste is gone. Emails are without niceties and include only actionable information. The true test of a good work relationship can be measured by how much you don’t say.
On the other hand, things like blogs and Twitter are also text-based, but you get to know someone in ways that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, even if you had lunch with them everyday for a week.
Spend an hour with me and you’ll know very little. Spend an hour on my blog and you’ll learn much more. (In my case, probably more than you want to.)
Knowing When to Use What
People that rely entirely on face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) communication are at a distinct disadvantage in the speed of their work and the success of their career. “Talking” is simply too slow. And if you’re competing with 100,000,000 nerds typing at 60 wpm — and, like it or not, you are competing with them and you will be more and more — it’s not difficult to figure out who’s going to win, improve, succeed, and get the job done.
So, please use…
- Email for productive exchanges of information, NOT for hi-how-are-you or to broadcast your first trip to Asia;
- Intranets for inside-company messages and announcements;
- Project management programs for, well, project management;
- Wikis for broad, collaborative efforts;
- Twitter as a personal or corporate mini-blog;
- Blogs for personal or corporate commentary, description and announcements;
- Phone when all else fails, the email would be too long, you’re just “meeting” someone for the first time, or what is unfortunately the case with most phone calls, you have no idea what this article is talking about; and
- Meetings for…
Corporate Culture
Is it important? You bet. More important than skills and experience.
Corporate culture is make-it-or-break-it for great companies. But improvements in corporate culture come from two sources, and neither of them have anything to do with boardroom tables or email.
First, do your job superbly well. Become a crucial member of the team by exceeding the need. In contrast, if you constantly let your team down, even if you tell great jokes, they won’t want to hang out with you for long.
Second, have a meeting.
But don’t pretend it’s about work. Go for lunch, spend the day rock climbing. Jump out of airplanes together. Whatever.
You know. Have fun. Spend time like meetings were intended to: important and honestly unproductive.
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