To communicate effectively we need to already have some areas of commonness between us. Culture is one of those areas. When facilitating virtual teams or in local cross-cultural contexts, I sometimes underestimate the differences between cultures. It’s easy to auto-pilot into my culture’s way of doing things. And, that’s not always a good thing. […]
The risk of letting others do your work: Loss of connection
When I let others do my cooking, I hand over control. And, in handing over that control, I sacrifice connection. When I choose to go fast food over home cooking, I’ve removed myself from the connection between food ‘au naturel’ and finished product. There is risk-reward in letting others do your work. No human, […]
Effective Communications: Adding Verbal and Non-Verbal Capacity in Virtual Contexts
Working virtually can put the squeeze on our full range of verbal and nonverbal communication skills. This is a given with it comes to nonverbal. When we’re in the same physical space together, the success of our communication effort is mightily influenced by our nonverbal, visual, actions. Where is body language, and tone of voice, […]
Effective Communications: Align virtual channel with feedback requirements
If you’ve ever fired off an email, and mistakenly thought your communication work was done, raise your hand. Mine’s up; both of them! Feedback loops are about working with the effect of your actions, on the other person. Feedback loops get even more complicated, in the virtual arena. Here’s a two-minute screencast I created; explaining […]