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October 9, 2007
The importance of being there
Advanced telecommunications - especially the Internet - was supposed to result in the death of distance. Place would no longer matter, since individuals could communicate with one another across time and space. Email is the epitome of this communications. Fast, yet free from time constraints (you can answer your emails on your schedule).
I won't go into all the reasons why this analysis is short sighted -- why place still matters (my 2001 paper Knowledge Management as an Economic Development Strategy goes into some of the arguments). But the following story points out a major problem with email - E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread) - New York Times:
New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.
Face-to-face interaction, by contrast, is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.
Most crucially, the brain’s social circuitry mimics in our neurons what’s happening in the other person’s brain, keeping us on the same wavelength emotionally. This neural dance creates an instant rapport that arises from an enormous number of parallel information processors, all working instantaneously and out of our awareness.
In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.
E-mail, of course, has a multitude of virtues: it’s quick and convenient, democratizes access and lets us stay in touch with loads of people we could never see or call. It enables us to accomplish huge amounts of work together.
Still, if we rely solely on e-mail at work, the absence of a channel for the brain’s emotional circuitry carries risks.
At the core of the I-Cubed Economy is tacit knowledge and tacit communications. Tacit information is best conveyed in real time. Maybe telecommunications will eventually advance to the point where such information-rich face-to-face is possible over long distances. But even then, the serendipity of bouncing an idea off your colleagues in a chance meeting will still be important. I think for the foreseeable future, the importance of being there will remain.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at October 9, 2007 10:41 AM
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