Is a completely remote services engagement feasible?

Working in a virtual company, communication is very important to keep everyone on track, engaged in the business, and aware of tips and tricks of the trade. We don’t all get to see other in person often – more often we’re looking at each other’s Skype picture that have been loaded in our profiles. Oh, we’ve all got webcams but we don’t use them much. Correction, I don’t use them much. If I’m onsite with a customer, it doesn’t seem very appropriate to broadcast their facility. If I’m working from home, well, let’s just say I prefer to be comfortable so business casual would be a stretch. And above all else, I hate to see my face taking up valuable screen space (my reflection is one thing, but an actual mirror is annoying!)

So your voice becomes the means by which information is communicated – logical? Yes. Effective – well, maybe. There are many articles and books on the market about the art of communication and that up to 50% of communication is done through body language. Really hard to see this if you’re not using webcams or just relying on voice inflection to pick up on cues. What are some clues you CAN detect when on conference calls? The rustling of paper at odd times – indication that some other work may have been brought into the meeting, the background conversations of people popping in and out – distracting those attending the meeting, the infamous MUTE button – an enemy of the conference caller since the other party misses out on side conversations, comments, and, above all, body language! In a way, I guess pushing the MUTE button is body language meaning “there are things I need to talk about that you cannot participate in.”

I find the most effective communication is in-person at customer facilities where you are face to face with the audience and able to pick up on all those non-verbal cues. You also quickly identify those you are drivers in the organization and those who are attending because it was mandatory or a meeting put on their calendar (sometimes these are the folks with the droopy eyelids or fingers glued to the Blackberry replying to emails). Anyone who is sitting up and forward, contributing to the conversation with positive or negative comments, is someone I want in the room. Yes, negative comments as well. You get your best information from the people who voice issues and concerns because they are challenging you to address a solution. If you win over the negatives, you get more positives to support the initiative!

How much time do you need to spend on-site? The whole engagement? Our team works with SaaS solutions so we mix on-site with remote consulting. Quite a bit of consulting can be delivered remotely effectively once you have a solid foundation of the customer’s business model, requirements, and agreement on the direction for the solution. On-site is usually at the beginning and the end many times to gain initial information and to provide training and go-live support, respectively.

So what about those organizations that are virtual like us? Actually, these are the only teams that I would say we can effectively perform completely remote engagements. Why? Because it’s how they communicate every day. They don’t have hallway conversations – they have IM chats. They don’t have lunch gatherings – they have team calls. There is just a different level of verbal information exchange when you work with a virtual company because it is how they exist, not just a way to save on travel costs.

Of course, other virtual organizations may make more use of webcams and I’m sure one day I will need to as well. Until then, I’m putting a piece of paper over my webcam to avoid scaring anyone accidentally on a webinar…I’m just saying.
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