New Ways to Connect: An Interview With Phil Simon
As many of us have been thrown into a COVID world of communication tech, the problems that workers face can be frustrating, annoying, or even devastating to productivity and team survival.
Author, speaker, and workplace technology expert Phil Simon wrote Reimagining Collaboration to address up-to-date solutions and strategies to address the problems that even the largest companies are facing today.
We were lucky enough to grab an interview with Phil, who dives a little bit more into these issues and inspires us to check out his latest book!
Tell us more about Reimagining Collaboration: what was the moment you knew that you wanted to help tackle the problem of collaboration tech?
There was no Eureka moment. As my friends and long-time clients can attest, I’ve been banging the drum for more effective communication and collaboration for most of my career.
In different forms, I addressed these themes in many of my prior books—most recently Slack For Dummies and Zoom For Dummies. Application-specific guides, however, quickly become outdated these days. (We don’t receive new software versions in boxes anymore.)
After the release of Zoom For Dummies, I wanted to pen a conceptual book that would withstand frequent changes to user interfaces, rebrandings, and the like. I believe that I succeeded with this in Reimagining Collaboration.
I’m proud of the fact that my book doesn’t propose simple answers. Tech alone won’t solve the problems that a dysfunctional company faces. It’s folly to claim otherwise. Collaboration applications and the Hub-Spoke Model of Collaboration, however, can go a long way toward addressing many of the issues that companies, groups, and employees are experiencing.
What lies at the heart of this communication problem? Is the tech to blame, or are we to blame?
I’m a data guy. Before I answer your question, let me provide some key context:
Asana released the Anatomy of Work Index 2021 and found that employees spend nearly 60 percent on work coordination, rather than the skilled, strategic jobs that they were hired to do.
Okta 2021 Businesses at Work Report revealed that the number of business applications used per customer was 88.
Beezy’s 2021 Digital Workplace Trends & Insights found that 41 percent of employees reported feeling overwhelmed by the number of tools and technologies that they’re required to use. From the same report, nearly three in five employees claim that frequent application notifications decrease their productivity. I’m surprised that it’s that low.
And we wonder why The Great Recession has arrived and employee burnout has skyrocketed.
Now let me connect some dots. First, we love to blame tech because it can’t blame us back. Collaboration technology has evolved a great deal over my lifetime. No longer can we claim that it’s expensive, clunky, and difficult to use.
Second, in many cases, rank-and-file actively resist learning new things. I’ve seen that movie many times before.
For the most part, though, I tend to blame senior leadership for an organization’s communication problems. I like to ask my consulting clients and prospects these questions before we sign any papers:
Are they relying upon email while everyone else uses Slack, Microsoft Teams, or another internal collaboration hub?
Are they investing in employee training on these new collaboration tools? Or do they expect workers to learn the ins and outs of these applications on their own time?
Are they reimagining business processes or are they attempting to preserve their pre-Covid ones?
Brass tacks: It’s high time for organizations to reimagine collaboration. That’s why I wrote my book.
What has been your biggest success after Reimagining Collaboration: have any companies or teams reached out to you after using your methods?
I’ve experienced a nice uptick in speaking inquiries. On a related note, I recently signed an exclusive deal with a prominent bureau. As for consulting queries, they’re also on the rise. At an actual, real-world conference a few weeks ago in Phoenix, five people asked for my card when I explained the core thesis behind Reimagining Collaboration.
What are some signs, for a team or a company, that their communication practices just aren’t working?
Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other tools allow for increasingly sophisticated analytics behind company, department, and team communication. Often, though, the answer to a simple question tells me almost everything that I need to know: What do you use for internal communication and collaboration?
If the answer is either “email”, “I’m not sure”, or “a bunch of different tools”, I know that I can help the organization in a number of key ways.
Can readers expect something new from you in the future, or have you been thinking of a follow-up to Reimagining Collaboration?
Well, translations of this book—and Dropcap has been amazing in that key regard.
As for my next project, I’m toying with a number of ideas—including a business novel of sorts. I enjoy the writing process and I’ve found that books have consistently opened professional doors for me.
And as a fun question, what do you personally like to do when you want to escape technology or take a break from endless message “pings?”
I enjoy tennis, reading books (yeah, I’m old school), concerts, poker, movies, and working out.
About the Author
Phil Simon is a recognized technology and collaboration authority. He is the award-winning author of eleven books, most recently Reimagining Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and the Post-COVID World of Work. He consults organizations on analytics, communications, strategy, data, and technology. His contributions have appeared in The Harvard Business Review, CNN, The New York Times, and many other prominent media outlets. He also hosts the podcast Conversations About Collaboration.