1 Day F2F > 1,000 emails

A Project Team Working Face-to-Face

We often get the technology right, but forget about the sociology and then wonder why our computing systems do not live up to expectations.

We often forget about the social in social computing. We tend to focus on the computing, because it is easier. Email and other on-line collaboration tools work well in some situations/discussions, but not in all.  A lack of non-verbal cues [oral and body language] can quickly lead to confusion and rage in on-line discussions.

Email is great for sharing data, simple facts, and process updates, but not for "making sense" of complex problems. For that you need a richer media -- like real-time, face-to-face. Just like a picture is worth a thousand words, a day working face-to-face is worth a thousand emails... and probably more!

See the picture above from one of my project teams.  We mostly worked on-line, but when we met in person, the non-verbal communication was rapid and rewarded! Each F2F meeting created new understanding, cross-pollinating ideas and increased camaraderie among the team.

1 Day F2F > 1,000 emails/texts/posts/etc.

Originally published July 4, 2007