Vegetarian Day (for my mother) :
Bread and cheese (mimolette and bleu) for lunch
Risotto aux carottes & à la crème avec salade verte for dinner
1 square of 90% Chocolate to finish off.
I recently blogged about the danger of dehumanisation in day to day interactions. I have to say that I am confirmed in my concern when I see how its affecting me professionally. As a consulting company that spends most of its time at client sites we are a very dislocated organisation. Most of our communication is through conference calls (skype usually) but with the camera off . Again in the name of efficiency and cost reduction we are dehumanising ourselves to the pint we are all just voices. We have too many calls (its much easier to set up a call than to have a meeting) and when we are on calls most of us are probably switching off or doing something else most of the time. The professional skype etiquette is to turn off your camera and put yourself on mute when you are not speaking. So if there are 15 to 20 of us on a call which is often the case I would say that a lot of us are tuning out most of the time. The worst is when the call leader, often the company President, after having gone through a 15 minute harangue on how things need to change then asks if there are any comment or questions.... And there is a long, long, very long silence. No one has anything to say and for some reason silence on a conference call feels even more uncomfortable than in a meeting also it tends to last much longer.
So my advice to professional communication in the Internet age:
Bread and cheese (mimolette and bleu) for lunch
Risotto aux carottes & à la crème avec salade verte for dinner
1 square of 90% Chocolate to finish off.
I recently blogged about the danger of dehumanisation in day to day interactions. I have to say that I am confirmed in my concern when I see how its affecting me professionally. As a consulting company that spends most of its time at client sites we are a very dislocated organisation. Most of our communication is through conference calls (skype usually) but with the camera off . Again in the name of efficiency and cost reduction we are dehumanising ourselves to the pint we are all just voices. We have too many calls (its much easier to set up a call than to have a meeting) and when we are on calls most of us are probably switching off or doing something else most of the time. The professional skype etiquette is to turn off your camera and put yourself on mute when you are not speaking. So if there are 15 to 20 of us on a call which is often the case I would say that a lot of us are tuning out most of the time. The worst is when the call leader, often the company President, after having gone through a 15 minute harangue on how things need to change then asks if there are any comment or questions.... And there is a long, long, very long silence. No one has anything to say and for some reason silence on a conference call feels even more uncomfortable than in a meeting also it tends to last much longer.
So my advice to professional communication in the Internet age:
- Have physical meetings at least 2x a month
- Limit your telephone conversations to 2 people (you + 1)
- If you must have a conference call require everyone to switch on their cameras
- If you have a conference call with too many people to have cameras ... Don't do it!
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