Myths to Methods: Mobile to Money

I'm getting a bit fed up with urban-myths sold as fact.  "Remote working is impossible."  "People travel to offices because digital technologies can't replace face-to-face."  "You can't work virtually until you've met face-to-face."  The list goes on and on in ignorance.

Recently had a conversation where I was told in no uncertain terms that, 'You can't work virtually unless you had met face to face!'  I asked the speaker politely if he had ever tried working digitally or virtually first, or at all to which the reply came back, gruffly, "No! Because it wouldn't work!"

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.- Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist

Recently a Harvard Business review article by Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel caught my eye.  In it, they comment, “What early digital commentators missed is that even if we can work from anywhere, that does not mean we want to.” This is an incorrect observation. The truth is that most of us can’t WORK from anywhere. Work is often about human to human interactions, emotions, creativity and trust building or other relationships. Stop and think about it. I write a comment to this post. You read my comment and respond. Someone else responds to your comment and I read that… We NEVER interact as humans. You and I NEVER interact as human beings as we would in a real-life space. The bulk of the market for digital communication is not about human to human interaction. The digital communications which the authors go on to describe are about human beings interacting with data!  Here's a blog which expands and explains more.

I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Two years later we ourselves made flights. This demonstration of my impotence as a prophet gave me such a shock that ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.- Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) [In a speech to the Aero Club of France (Nov 5, 1908)]  

My focus for the last decade has been on Enhanced Reality (ER)...ER is digital technologies put into action to re-create the human interactions with all the attendant emotions and physical spatial memories. ER then seeks to layer, on top of the human experience, features only digital technologies can enable such as: persistence, single points of view amongst several people search at a click, etc.  To my surprise we have created what I describe (and I  am biased) as a world beater...QUBE.  We are working towards making QUBE the world's most sought and bought productivity and education methods and behaviours.

In my Google Zeitgiest talk I explain how the daily commute has turned us into time travellers. (12 minutes if you have the time.) The authors are correct in their conclusions but for the wrong reasons. Over the past four years I have transitioned my organisation from offices to working globally via ER. Relationships are better, office politics has declined and most importantly productivity has risen by about a factor of five. I believe that we will continue to travel to offices until we transition from devices and digital applications which separate us from each other by making us interact with data to routinely making the technology serve us and enhance our human to human interactions.

And that's why slogans, for that is all it is like, "The world is going mobile." are so misleading.  Mobile means doing what we did in the 20th century and adding on digital opportunities simply as accessories!

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.- Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French military strategist, 1911. He was later a World War I commander.

So if you've never experienced the 'Heavier than air flying machines of the digital communication world' - Enhanced reality (ER), I'd like to invite you to visit and explore my organisation which collaborates incredibly effectively, although we are permanently geographically dispersed. My stipulation is that you write up what you discover honestly and post them to this conversation.

Connect to me via Linkedin or as @EddieObeng

NEW TALKS FROM EDDIE OBENG FOR 2017:

UNCERTAINTY - The leadership and strategic mind-set and toolkit to help you navigate the current global uncertainty.

NEURO-COLLABORATION - Making the most of digital opportunities to allow human minds to collaborate and engage.

METAMORPHOSIS - Transforming your incumbent/legacy organisation to outperform digital disruptors.

AGILITY - Successful and fast delivery of 'foggy' change in a turbulent business environment.

PERSUASION - Innovative Leadership in Complex Times - A master class in how to get just about anyone to follow you doing something new.

HUMAN-MACHINE - Visions and strategies for the future of work in a world where machines are stronger and smarter than us.