“Most bosses” feel they must make fundamental business changes
Three rather interesting surveys were released this September…
…one from IBM Global Services — “Expanding the Innovation Horizon: The Global CEO Study 2006”; another from The Economist Intelligence Unit (sponsored by Cisco Systems) — “Foresight 2020: Economic, industry and corporate trends” and a third published by Cisco and carried out by Pearn Kandola — “The Psychology of Effective Business Communications in Geographically Dispersed Teams”, each providing insight into current aspirations and concerns of business leaders around the world.
IBM's report is the result of in-depth interviews of no fewer than 765 CEOs around the world: 267 from Europe, 191 from North and Latin America, and 307 from AsiaPac (including 49 from India and 62 from China).
Optimistically, it finds that two out of three CEOs expect their organisations to be "inundated" with change over the next two years, driven by workforce issues, technological advances, regulatory concerns and, of course, globalisation.
“CEOs do not seem intimidated, or content simply to cope. Instead they are embracing change. CEOs see it as both reason and license to expand their horizon — to pursue less traditional forms of innovation, to look high and low, outside and in, for innovative ideas and to accept greater personal responsibility for fostering innovation within and beyond their organizations.”
Their goal is innovation and the means is collaboration:
“Collaboration on a massive, geography-defying scale literally opens a world of possibilities for how products, services, processes and business models are (re)designed and implemented. Distance, scale, language, company walls — limits that once seemed immutable are now broken on a regular basis.”
Full report: Expanding the Innovation Horizon: The Global CEO Study 2006
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report, which interviewed 1,656 executives from 100 countries around the world, also focuses on the importance of collaboration — “the major trend of the next 15 years”. Nine out of ten say they will increase or significantly increase collaborative teamwork (inside and outside the organisation) to solve complex problems.
“Organisational structures will change. In order to increase the efficiency of interactions with others, executives expect organisations to become flatter and for employees to have more autonomy to make substantive decisions. More than two-thirds of respondents also say that they will incentivise employees to collaborate more effectively with other parties.”
Asked, ‘Where will your organisation focus as it seeks to improve productivity growth over the next 15 years’, respondents answered (in order):
- More efficient organisational structures (53%)
- Improved quality of communication (52%)
- Improved integration of data/technologies (49%)
- Increased automation of processes (47%)
- Improved skills (40%)
- Outsourcing of business processes (20%)
- Other (4%)
On Collaboration:
…inside and outside companies will widen and deepen as internal teams work across time zones and functions, as customers demand ever more of companies, and as companies demand ever more of suppliers. Relationship skills will be at a premium.”
On Automation and process improvements:
“…will continue to be a major focus of activity in many companies. But the hunt for competitive advantage will increasingly focus on improving the productivity and performance of knowledge workers.”
On Organisations:
“…will become flatter and less hierarchical. Employees will be given greater decision-making autonomy and will participate more actively in corporate planning.”
Full report: Foresight 2020: Economic, industry and corporate trends
As mentioned, Cisco Systems sponsored the EUI report and, through research from occupational psychologist Pearl Kandola, sees the future as one where work becomes more “granular” and specialised, leading to geographically dispersed teams linked by technology and individual knowledge, defined as an amalgam of “individual experience, behaviour and understanding”.
The challenge, then, is how to make such knowledge flow; does the answer lie in new communications technologies?
Much of the research compares computer mediated communication (CMC) with face-to-face (F2F) communication as an efficient and effective way of building relationships. What is clear is that effective use of technology can significantly shorten the time to effectiveness for virtual teams, but that care must be taken over the selection and deployment of different forms of CMC.
“Today's communication technology can play a powerful, positive role in assisting virtual team development and success in all of these areas. However, technology can also lead to misunderstanding, misattribution and conflict if it is not well used. Ultimately team members and team managers must use a range of communications techniques and technologies to ensure that messages are conveyed in the most transparent, timely and efficient manner. Any technologies that help individuals negotiate the complexities of virtual teamworking must be a boon.
“As organisations become increasingly global in reach, distribution and constitution; as effective knowledge sharing becomes a main driver of value and success; and as more complex eco-systems of individuals and groups with specialist knowledge come together in virtual teams, the importance of effective communication cannot be overestimated.”
According to the report, the key is in matching communications technologies to the cultural, organisational and behavioural expectations and demands of virtual teams, so guidance and best practice becomes increasingly important:
- Plan extra time for relationship and trust building in virtual teams.
- Use richer media in initial stages of a project to speed up relationship building.
- Facilitate cognitive trust building at the outset by sharing information about each team member's accomplishments, experience, competence and integrity.
- Facilitate development of affective trust using socialisation strategies such as virtual coffee breaks / online chat rooms, social conferencing via video or telephone.
- Be aware of the negative effects of ‘silence’ — explain expected delays in response, communicate your availability / unavailability to team members.
- Provide guidelines and establish protocols for communicating within multi-cultural teams.
- Agree protocols with the team on response times and message acknowledgement.
- Encourage team members to be explicit in communicating what they are thinking and doing.
- The use of a communication mediator and informal discussion forums can help to overcome intercultural communication difficulties.
- Help teams to develop a shared identity and shared context by encouraging socialising and the use of spontaneous communications, but ensure team members are able to establish their optimal level of communication and signal availability to avoid over-communication and interruption.
- Give the team access to a range of communications media and guidelines to help them select the most appropriate media to meet the objectives and tasks at hand.
Full report: The Psychology of Effective Business Communications in Geographically Dispersed Teams
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