Getting The Wires Crossed

As I have posted about several times now, communication and collaboration are two of the biggest challenges to telecommuting. On a recent conference call, these two challenges became very clear.In a discussion about an assessment process, we came to a point where I disagreed with a few members of the group. Once I expressed my thoughts, and the appropriate time of “group reflection” passed, the conversation continued as if I had said nothing. The observation I made was this: Telecommuters face an up-hill battle when it comes to winning boardroom confrontations, especially in work cultures or with peers not fully accepting of the situation. Where as in a face-to-face meeting you can stand your ground or use your physical posturing to influence the outcomes, the phone is just a little box that crackles to life every so often.

On a much larger scale, this scenario plays out to be very important to the impact telecommuting can have on higher education. If colleges distribute their workforce and only those who are on site weld the real power and influence, those who are forward thinking enough to successfully work remotely will have reduced influence on the institution. Even if the telecommuters can attend the meetings, they lose out because they do not have “boots on the ground” at the campus. As for faculty, this issue is extremely important because it dilutes their input on the operations of the college, a common complaint of faculty who are already on site.

A solution to the phone call show down is video conferencing. Unfortunately, my college does not have the bandwidth to support a two-hour video conference, but there are plans to change that. Currently, when the video conferencing fails to perform it only further taints the opinion of telecommuting to some on campus staff.