Being There

Nowadays, it seems that there is something of a bunker mentality taking hold in a number of industries, particularly those wherein staff reductions are occurring.  While some people might think that this is something that is just happening in beleaguered industries like auto, let’s not lose sight of the fact that in January even Microsoft announced it will be cutting 5,000 jobs, a first.  Advanced Micro Devices took a whack at its job roles.  Boeing is taking out about 10,000 this year.

And so it goes.

One of the consequences is that people are keeping their heads down, lest, they believe, by sticking their head up they’ll get it—or at least their job—cut off.

This is not a good thing for product development.  Not a good thing at all.

Product development is a collaborative exercise.  It takes multiple skills.  Multiple functions.  Multiple points of view.  It is about giving and taking.  About arguing and engaging.  About people within your organization and people outside its walls.  It is about getting outside of your office to the places where whatever it is—be it a product or process—you are developing will be deployed.

But when you operate with a bunker mentality, you don’t go anywhere.  And that’s not good for anyone.  Sure you may be able to develop things with second- or third-hand knowledge.  But it won’t be first rate.

Two researchers, Mark Mortensen of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Tsedal Beyene of the Harvard Business School, recently published a study titled “Firsthand Experience and the Subsequent Role of Reflected Knowledge in Cultivating Trust in Global Collaboration.”  As you may surmise from the title, first-hand experience is about face-to-face being there, and that reflected knowledge, what the authors define as “knowledge of the self as seen through the eyes of the other,” is beneficial as regards trust, and trust is important for global collaboration.

Arguably, trust is essential for collaboration if the engineering staff is in one building, the designers are across town, and marketing is in another city, or any variant on any of these geographies.

Being there is essential.

But nowadays, there are probably far too many people who decide not to take the trip to the other sites because Corporate is on an austerity program.  Far too many people who don’t attend a conference or seminar or exposition because Management wants to cut travel costs.  Far too many people who imagine that they can get what they need from the Web (or even from enewsletters, like this one) and therefore don’t need to get bona fide face time with real people.

Which explains why far too many products and services fail or are mediocre, at best.

Sure, technology is helpful.  But there’s no substitute for firsthand experience for global collaboration.

So what are you doing to get out there?  Or are you keeping your head down?