Fluid communication

I had a discussion tonight where people expressed the need for real meetings. While I am not one to deny the full value of face to face meetings, there are simply not enough hours in the day for you to meet with everyone who wants or needs to meet you, and vice versa. This problem gets worse when one considers the need for meetings of groups and pairs - and "private time". And also when you do often is that a totally satisfactory experience for all parties, and indeed can you define such satisfaction?

In Groove we have various tools for communication. Our primary tools are
- chat
- IM
- discussion threads
- file sharing
- and the richness of spaces
- and the richness of tools such as ActiCam

These all work both synchronously and async.. For all parties, independently. This is very , very powerful. It is impossible to underplay this importance.

This means that any party can come into a conversation and drop out, temporarily or permanently as they see fit. Totally independently of any other parties decisions. They can drop out once, or a hundred times. They can drop out & return without causing offence, intentional or unintentional, and critically without loss of productivity.

By contrast imagine having a real meeting of 5 people and some of those walking in and out of the room every minute or two. Such action would be an insult and would severely hamper productivity. In Groove this is the norm and no-one worries about it for an instant.

In Groove you can operate several meetings in parallel - with ease. This means that any late breaking information from one could be brought to bear on another - just at the right moment, rather than a week later when the "iron has gone cold".

In Groove meetings are decided by the needs of the moment, not by the needs of a committe a week or a month ago.

You may ask what is a meeting in such a world. To me a meeting is a "meeting of minds". It is when one person says something that is as nearly fully understood by the other as is humanly possible. The opportunity in Groove for misinterpretation are naturally diminished and so the quality of communication goes as near to perfection as possible.

And underpinning this is a flexibility and fluidity that make me very sad when I hear of real meetings that are stressful. Let me just say - it does not need to be that way. There is a better way.

Do yourself a favor and indulge in some fluid communication. Do this to the full and when you have a real meeting it will increasingly become a celebration.