Comments on: Face to Face Communications – A must-have or nice-to-have? http://svprojectmanagement.com/face-to-face-communications-a-must-have-or-nice-to-have Project management wisdom from practictioners and the UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:04:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Paul Mansur http://svprojectmanagement.com/face-to-face-communications-a-must-have-or-nice-to-have/comment-page-1#comment-4933 Paul Mansur Wed, 27 May 2009 21:23:40 +0000 http://svprojectmanagement.com/2008/01/24/face-to-face-communications-a-must-have-or-nice-to-have/#comment-4933 I really can appreciate this blog entry on Face to Face communications. This is something I too, have experienced some resistance in our organization to speak face to face. There does seem to be a reliance on non verbal, physical meeting of parties who are involved on a particular project or urgent request. I tend to get email from managers and other top level employees who sit less than 20 feet from me. I am not sure if it is just laziness, too burdened by many other requests, or just plain avoidance, but I am one who needs to see a physical (body language) reaction. Just reading an email doesn't always convey the necessary emotion or reaction. I am not one who can read subtlety from text let alone direct interface. Sometimes, I read one thing when a completely other reaction may have been intended. I like that, as is stated in the blog, there are many examples of getting a point across via bold, italics, emoticons, or capital lettering to convey an emotion but again, some of this can be misconstrued. There is something to be said for a hybrid method of F2F and other technology use as stated within the blog. There is definitely an emphasis on time and place in my organization Another issue that plagues me is that it can be time consuming to have to keep adding follow on questions on a particular topic, email on email. Although it is nice to have time to think about what you are gonna say or ask, sometimes the back and forth tends to overwhelm me when time is essential. It gets to be a chore. So being able to use teleconferencing, video conferencing along with emails helps to smooth the interaction between partners in development. Gives a chance to make sure points of view are defended but at the very least heard. Questions can be asked and discussed and hashed out. I still rely on F2F or at the bare minimum phone (voice connection) to convey issues, questions, and points, when I am pressed for time. Maybe the real issue for me is to learn to make as many points and carefully think and ask my questions in one email. So my real issue may be how to construct a constructive email. A good blog! I really can appreciate this blog entry on Face to Face communications.

This is something I too, have experienced some resistance in our organization to speak face to face. There does seem to be a reliance on non verbal, physical meeting of parties who are involved on a particular project or urgent request. I tend to get email from managers and other top level employees who sit less than 20 feet from me. I am not sure if it is just laziness, too burdened by many other requests, or just plain avoidance, but I am one who needs to see a physical (body language) reaction. Just reading an email doesn’t always convey the necessary emotion or reaction. I am not one who can read subtlety from text let alone direct interface. Sometimes, I read one thing when a completely other reaction may have been intended. I like that, as is stated in the blog, there are many examples of getting a point across via bold, italics, emoticons, or capital lettering to convey an emotion but again, some of this can be misconstrued. There is something to be said for a hybrid method of F2F and other technology use as stated within the blog. There is definitely an emphasis on time and place in my organization

Another issue that plagues me is that it can be time consuming to have to keep adding follow on questions on a particular topic, email on email. Although it is nice to have time to think about what you are gonna say or ask, sometimes the back and forth tends to overwhelm me when time is essential. It gets to be a chore. So being able to use teleconferencing, video conferencing along with emails helps to smooth the interaction between partners in development. Gives a chance to make sure points of view are defended but at the very least heard. Questions can be asked and discussed and hashed out. I still rely on F2F or at the bare minimum phone (voice connection) to convey issues, questions, and points, when I am pressed for time. Maybe the real issue for me is to learn to make as many points and carefully think and ask my questions in one email. So my real issue may be how to construct a constructive email.

A good blog!

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