Can TelePresence Make me a better Manager?"
Today large companies like Cisco have dispersed teams with managers having employees in far flung places and different parts of the world. I believe that Cisco managers, like myself, can create greater rapport and better relationships over TelePresence than with a telephone call. There are also events like mid-year reviews that can be delivered with the impact of TelePresence and help keep the high performance employee more engaged and feel like they are more closely tied to the team and its objectives. The consulting firm Towers Perrin found in 2007 that only "only one out of five workers around the world feel engaged in their jobs". Cisco Advanced Services recognizes that employees are a key asset in the continual delivery of quality services. The yearly team event physical meeting where relationships are cemented and friendships are maintained is getting the impact of reduced travel expense requirements. That is where virtual meetings need to have the same impact as the face to face team meetings. What are the challenges managers have in creating a meeting and is it possible to have virtual team meetings using TelePresence?
by Phil Marechal, product manager, Cisco TelePresence
Posted by Phil Marechal at 09:49AM PST
kare Anderson Feb 26, 2009
The technology is impressive.
To ensure high-performing collaboration,
the next step is for Cisco to support its staff and clients
in understanding the human factor.
How, exactly, can two or more people maximize their time and interaction to become higher-performing together, via Telepresence more than they can:
• using another technology (say phone or text-based)
• or without understanding human factors, including…
...how to establish a top goal, maintain the thread of a conversation, agree on rules of engagement, speak to the sweet spot of mutual benefit.
Cisco could offer a double benefit when it provides both the Telepresence AND the guidance on how to behave to maximize the meeting
As we did on the Obama campaign staff, organizing cell groups that worked at a distance, it is the way we interacted that enabled us to become higher-performing and happier together.
Cisco could take the lead in helping people become more productive managers, peer collaborators, client-centered sales supporter… and more. Here’s to teaching the “high touch” to maximize the use of your high tech.