The Mindset

I love the Web.

There are times when I cannot understand how we were able to work and interact without it. Since I started publishing articles and blogging I’ve met so many people, been part of so many discussions, and been exposed to so many ideas. I have no doubt in my mind that without the Web as a communication platform most of it wouldn’t have happen.

What makes the evolution of the Web in the last couple of years so fascinating is the mash-up between two conflicting trends. On the one hand, we are all social beings. We like to communicate, to share, and to learn from each other. The social aspect is so inherent to our existence that we can’t just dismiss it. On the other hand many of us spend more hours than ever before with only the computer as a companion. Wonderful as computers might be, they are hardly a replacement for the company of other human beings.

And that’s how instant messaging, social networks, collaborative workspaces, blogging, and a bunch of other great tools emerged. All these wonderful tools fill our need to socialize while working alone for most of the day.

But when you think of it, most of us don’t work alone. We do work with other people. They are all around us. And yet many times we seem to prefer the distant, electronic, forms of communication. We forget that our next door neighbor (or the person sitting in the cubicle next to ours) is also a social being just waiting to communicate… with us.

Now, if this idea sounds a bit flaky, rest assured that it has practical aspects. Here’s a little experiment you can do at work.

Next time you face some technical problem, such as strange behavior of some component you’re using, an evasive bug, or merely a technical dead-end, get up from your chair and try to find a solution around you. Knock on some doors. Ask around. Interact. Notice how much time it takes you to find a colleague who can help you understand the problem and come up with a solution.

Then, for comparison, use the “traditional technique” of seeking a solution on the Web. When you do that, don’t use the knowledge provided to you by your colleague — use only your original problem definition.

Repeat the same experiment several times with different problems. You’ll be surprised to learn that a person sitting in the office next to yours might just have the knowledge you are seeking.

When I first noticed this phenomenon, I thought the answer would be to create a local knowledgebase through which people working together could exchange knowledge. But such an approach only perpetuates the problem — it doesn’t solve it. A local knowledgebase is… just another knowledgebase. It won’t make a significant difference in the way people interact. The real change will be when people actually start talking to each other — just as we did before we had bits, bytes, search engines, and tags for friends.

I know this sounds a bit old-school. I know the Web offers infinite knowledge, opinions, and ideas. And believe me when I say I don’t know how I could have worked without it. But this great tool should not come at the expense of getting together, discussing problems, and trying to solve them.

We should find a way to balance electronic communication and knowledge transfer with real face-to-face communication. Each has its place. Each has its pros and cons. We can’t settle for just one of these approaches. We need both.

When people interact in person, it’s magic. The magic is even greater when people from different teams, or even different departments, who normally don’t work together, interact and exchange ideas. It is this unstructured communication that sparks innovation, nurtures experience, and also makes work a lot more fun.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 5th, 2006 at 5:54 am and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.