This article was written by Duncan Peberdy, T1V's Territory Manager for Europe.
COVID-19 forced a new culture of remote working that has now changed the mindset of many employees about the absolute necessity to return to their daily commute and the wasted hours that it consumes. The flexibility of home working to walk the dog, get to the gym, pick the kids up from school, drop in on elderly parents, has forever changed perceptions of how and where we work. Some employers might feel this ‘flexibility’ will detract from the efficiency of their employees, but the truth is, the colleagues that they already value the most will be the ones starting work early, working late, and these highly valued ‘distractions’ will break up the day in a way that is good for mental health and great for their productivity.
I’ve been fortunate to be home-based for most of the last twenty years, and that flexibility of working has been a great motivation whether I’ve been self-employed or on someone’s payroll. And, perhaps needless to say, when I’ve had to be somewhere or on a call, that has always come first. But that flexibility has been greatly valued by me and, I’m sure, the value that I have delivered to my employers has been improved by the added motivation it brings.
Between being required to work fully remote in a COVID world and the pre-pandemic expectation of being fully present in the workplace, for many there is now an in-between world of hybrid working that we believe technology can support to ensure productivity isn’t reduced by our choice of location. It’s not all about technology because, as I alluded to earlier, the flexibility of working early, late, and creating time for non-work activities during the day will increase commitment and productivity. But technology is crucial, and so far, most companies are getting the technology side wrong when it comes to supporting hybrid working.
Just like being in the office, there are different types of meetings we might be required to attend remotely. These include town hall, project updates and check-in, problem solving, innovation, etc…, and they all require different levels of participation and contribution. And yet irrespective of the participation required, most companies rely on a single platform to provide the connectivity, with Zoom and Teams being the front-runners.
And this is precisely where the problem starts. The connectivity of Zoom, Teams, Webex, and all manner of choices available do not, in my opinion, provide the collaboration capabilities that distributed employees require in order to be successful in a hybrid world where anything other than just being connected is essential to meet the business needs for innovation and collaboration. Despite the many different reasons why people come together, each one of them is called ‘a meeting’ and whilst those technologies might be right for some meetings, they most certainly aren’t the correct choice for all meetings. And yet, so many organizations standardize on just a single connectivity solution that doesn’t fulfill these needs.
Well in that case, couldn’t we just stop hybrid working? For organizations that want to move forward that’s not an option; there’s no going back to how things were. The pandemic has massively changed our opinions and attitudes to work. Just look at this research from Gartner and tell me that going back is an option if you want to retain or attract the best talent.
Technology isn’t the problem, it’s the way that too many people implement it. Buying the technology, for what they think are all the right reasons, is the first decision, and having made the investment the next step is to make workflows and culture fit the technology. And all too often people won’t change their workflows or culture, especially if they haven’t been consulted first, and unless it’s a mandatory process, the adoption of technology to become the everyday standard way doesn’t happen.
Another very real problem is using different platforms in different circumstances that don’t align when you want to bring the workflows that are using those different platforms together — as would be the case with hybrid working — when you want to include a remote colleague into a collaborative workshop taking place in an innovation space. Without the ability to do anything other than connect, their value will be reduced if only because they feel isolated and of less value to the project.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a solution that rocked in collaboration spaces that supports agile working and innovation, that could be used in huddle spaces for far more than just screen sharing, and which provides a laptop warrior working from home with the power to join either group and fully contribute?
For in-room innovation where you need to work with multiple pieces of visual content, ThinkHub collaboration software provides a versatility that goes deep to the heart of collaboration. No more just scratching at the surface at the art of the possible when you need to see contextual information in a single panorama. You can now create it. Simply, intuitively, powerfully. For companies with multiple offices, up to ten ThinkHub rooms can connect and work together with identical content, with all locations able to work simultaneously. That is the real equity of participation in action and the opportunity to react quickly to situations on a global scale. No more inactively viewing whilst someone else takes the lead and chooses to dominate with their content.
ThinkHub Huddle for small meeting spaces connects multiple users, creates notes and drawings, gives you the ability to instantly capture and annotate on any content, and much more. And ThinkHub Cloud not only connects into both of these spaces so you can view and share information, it allows you to fully participate; to manipulate and edit the information you are connected with, making you a true member of the team. With ThinkHub Cloud, you can connect to any other ThinkHub Cloud user and work on Canvases of information together. And here’s a really clever advantage over the use of disparate systems. With most in-room collaboration systems, you can only use them when you’re physically in the room. The workflow Canvases created remotely in ThinkHub Cloud can be prepared in advance and loaded onto a ThinkHub Room system. Genius.
But what if you’re connecting with people outside of your organization who haven’t yet seen the light and are still using Teams or Zoom for everything? Invite your ThinkHub Room to the meeting, and when your meeting starts Zoom or Teams (or any other VC option) will automatically launch and all the content can be shared. In fact, ThinkHub will switch effortlessly between meeting platforms providing a true single click to connect. More genius for when you want meetings to start first time, every time, irrespective of the connecting platform.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I joined T1V. Those of you who know me well will understand how enabling effective collaboration for learning and working has been the centerpiece of my efforts over many years. Now you don’t need to ask me why, you just need to reach out to me or one of my great colleagues to find out why more and more organizations are discovering what true investment in unified collaboration looks like, and how their businesses are benefiting from a solution that underpins and advances their workflows instead of disrupting them.
On Thursday March, 24th I’ll be speaking in London at Ahead by BETT, the thought leadership event for Higher Education, on the necessity for campus-based universities and colleges to expand their comfort zones in regard to hybrid learning. Universities especially, have been left behind by the transformative advantages of embracing digital solutions that all other areas of our lives have benefitted from. My session, “It’s university life Jim, but not as we know it!”, will explore why so many students are demanding a modernization of their undergraduate studies, and why the sector cannot afford to ignore new models for learning and working.