The missing role at most organizations is a communication/collaboration facilitator—a person to help create intentionally humane and effective communication protocols.
So much of work is communication in many modes and channels. And it's really really hard to get right.
So much of work is communication in many modes and channels. And it's really really hard to get right.
IT picks software tools. Facilities runs meeting rooms (in the before).
No one thinks about how to orchestrate the most functional communication among various roles/tasks/etc. People just treat it like something that everyone knows how to do well.
No one thinks about how to orchestrate the most functional communication among various roles/tasks/etc. People just treat it like something that everyone knows how to do well.
Creating the conditions for healthy communication among people *is* interaction design.
Just having physical meeting rooms, or slack channels or zoom is like giving the end user a command prompt.
That's a bad metaphor because the command line is less taxing than zoom.
Just having physical meeting rooms, or slack channels or zoom is like giving the end user a command prompt.
That's a bad metaphor because the command line is less taxing than zoom.
The lack of intentionally designed communication practices and norms makes room for a lot of bullying and exclusionary behavior. Without an explicit shared practice, it falls to the strong personalities to take over.
Not to mention the sheer waste of time.
Not to mention the sheer waste of time.
A lot of what people hate about meetings is that there is either no structure, or one person who is an aggressive structure copy and imposes the same procrustean protocol on everything called a meeting.
So, instead of having nice modules to choose from (like in a good design system), communicating with other people is like having to build an IKEA bookcase from scratch every time (to find out you're missing a part) OR you show up to a prebuilt bookcase when you need a worktable.
Calendars are hard.
No one has managed to redesign a shared calendar. So the key is probably not using the calendar as a tool to design communication.
Which people do as a default and which it is not.
This leads to a lot of us doing time-violence to one another.
No one has managed to redesign a shared calendar. So the key is probably not using the calendar as a tool to design communication.
Which people do as a default and which it is not.
This leads to a lot of us doing time-violence to one another.
Putting meetings on other people's calendars without warning is basically eminent-domaining their very life.
And now we are in the skeuomorphism time. The horseless carriage/suede iphone app, where everything that *was* a meeting is now a zoom and people are stressed af.
Zoom was great in the previous context of work. I loved it before it became the everything channel.
Zoom was great in the previous context of work. I loved it before it became the everything channel.
Just like we need content strategy for digital documents or everything devolves into politics and chaos, there needs to be communication strategy for human interactions.
There is no tool that will just handle it. AND it's different for every org based on purpose, culture, etc.
There is no tool that will just handle it. AND it's different for every org based on purpose, culture, etc.
