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In this episode of The Struggling Biz, we discuss a recent episode from Todd Henry’s podcast show, The Accidental Creative, which was called “Re-Imagining Collaboration (with Phil Simon).”
In Todd’s episode, he interviews Phil Simon about the subject of the future of collaboration and work — including the new high-tech tools for remote collaboration. That includes the Zoom, Skype, Slack, Teams and all the other programs that say that they are the best. And due to the sham-demic of 2020, most people resorted to do remote conversations with Zoom or the tool of their choice. I, for one, did a few Zoom calls and Slack conversations — and the result for me was that I was not impressed and that I chose NOT to be on Zoom if that is the only way to converse.
Why?
Well, what Phil Simon does not indicate (mainly because he was NOT old enough to be in the world of employment or professional work at the time) is that, in 1994, I myself had been involved in a remote conversation program that did all that he professed as the positive benefits of these remote access programs — and the program we used in corporate America was that of Lotus Notes.
Why?
Because since that time, the idea of the “central hub” for communication and collaboration was already in existence, with quite a bit of security. And that is what was attractive for corporate America large corporations nearly 40 years ago.
And, as you will hear in the podcast episode from Todd Henry’s show of The Accidental Creative, a lot of great benefits for centralized hubs of collaboration are those which we can take advantage of. However, there are also a couple of “gotcha’s” that are included in this new era of work which you may not like. And those are of PRIVACY and SECURITY and other environments to keep your information to yourself and your business, and NOT to let the ownership of the data and experiences be open to all in the hub (whether they are still in the hub or not — for they may have gone to the competition, as an example).
You, as an entrepreneur, may have to bite the bullet to install, learn how to use and stay permanently with these new tools (made popular during the lock-down period). But you also have the choice of keeping older tools that may work well for you up to now as most efficient as key parts of your business. One example of this is: email.
Now, my experience in corporate America dates back to the time when email was still NOT part of the communication or collaboration technologies among associates or with clients and customers. For us, the telephone was still the key tool, along with telephone conference calls. And we saw email as the god-send that would allow us to collaborate and improve our communication and collaboration. And now, 40 years later, email is still a great tool — although you may have to manage your emails and take more time. But YOU OWN YOUR EMAIL content and will not allow prying eyes to view or manage — or even control or manipulate — your collaboration.
So, we would suggest that you consume the audio podcast from Todd Henry, so that you can understand someone’s view of the new tools for collaboration and ask yourself if these would be the best for you — especially when you look at the other side like a devil’s advocate to see the possible down-side of using these tools.
And if you do decide to standardize on these new collaboration tools, then you must resign yourself to become a mini-tech center. That is, you will have to download and learn how to install and configure and manage and maintain these tools. And with that, you will have to learn more as a tech center for use of these tools. And then, you must be aware that you will be at the mercy of these tools for updates and possible influence and manipulation by the companies that provide them.
Also, would you want to have all your collaboration for you and your associates or sphere of influence or customers (and competitors) available from now on? That would be a possible compromise of security and privacy for some entrepreneurs.
And others may say to themselves: “I will learn the new technologies and participate in them, but I choose NOT to have all my collaboration in a “hub” where I compromise my values — but I will still be knowledgeable with a few experiences of these new technologies. Why? Because the next of the new technologies will appear sooner rather than later, and then I can move to that new toy freely instead of being constrained and manipulated by these current technologies of collaboration.”
So, whatever your decision, we hope that you do well in the future as you become a miniature tech center with new technologies — for we all have to be one, as remote collaboration and communication seems to be the manner of business in the foreseeable future. We hope that you can rise up to the challenge and be ready to apply more resources to become not only knowledgeable, but efficient, with these new programs.
Thank you for your attention.
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