FQ at CES: Building Better Team Communication With Tech, and Thoughtful Boundaries

Those topics was all part of a panel discussion at CES last week that was organized by The Female Quotient FQ It focused on using technology for effective team communicationClearly there are pluses and minuses for each office solution on the market and not everyone uses them in the same way Microsoft Teams Google Meet and Slack were all mentioned as favorite options quotWith Slack I like that I can deposit things there and I can go back and find them I find that superefficientquot said the panel39s moderator Ronda Carnegie The FQ39s Chief Innovation Officer However quotI39m not Slack surfing all the timequotCarnegie asked the panelists how they think office technology will evolve Annie JeanBaptiste Google39s Director Product Inclusion and Equity said that during the pandemic she found it inspiring when people were quotreally scrappyquot in coming up with solutions for business communication quotWe found them really quickly we were resilient What39s dangerous about that is sometimes the groups that are historically marginalized get left behindquot she saidquotOf course masks are super important but if you think about someone who39s deaf and lip reads how are they supposed to do that with masks How do we make sure that at key inflection points whether it39s ideation or research and testing those that have been on the margins are a part of that processquot JeanBaptiste addedFuture solutions connected to mental health and wellness are of key interest to Christena Pyle Chief Equity Officer at dentsu Americas quotI love the boundaries that are starting to be put up and the tracking and insights about my time that39s served back to mequot she said quotIt39ll flag me and tell me 39You39re working after hours39 or 39You worked after hours five times last week39quotCreating boundaries involves communicating with other members of a team more clearly as well At dentsu quotwe call each other out Some people have been very forthrightquot said Pyle For example one manager might caution another not to email staff members on the weekend because their team dislikes it even though no one will say so quotOur leadership team has gone through a lot of exercises to hold each other accountablequotBoundaries also become more complex when teams are based in various pockets of the globe There39s a massive time zone difference between staff members at Aristocrat which designs manufactures and markets gaming machines and softwarequotWhen Australia logs in at 3 or 4 in the afternoon Pacific they39re all bright and cheery eyedquot said Joan Saez the company39s Global Director of Business and Data Analytics Digital Transformation quotWe ran into a situation where they were demanding that everyone appear on camera If you happened to cover London that day at 630 in the morning by 4 in the afternoon you39re donequot And you might not look or feel that great eitherThat39s especially true if a parent has kids just getting home from school For some women on the Aristocrat team in particular the demand seemed very aggressive That39s the kind of situation where leaders need to be an ally and run point Saez addedquotIt39s really important for leaders to model healthy boundariesquot said Google39s JeanBaptiste quotIf you39re always sending out messages at night and on the weekend people are taking cues from thatquot Her team has a quotnonnegotiablesquot Google Doc In it someone might explain when they workout or when they need to be with their kids Or someone based in Paris might note that scheduling meetings throughout the East Coast workday really infringes on their personal life quotEveryone reviews that and we update it on a quarterly basisquotPyle says that dentsu has a team quotcharterquot that39s similar in nature quotWe talk about communication styles and our favorite mediums to communicate I find that we do longform herearethedetails messages in email and text is pretty urgent and pretty fast In Microsoft Teams it39s about communityquotWhen it comes to visioning and strategy inperson meetings are optimal Pyle and Saez noted There was one instance when bringing Aristocrat39s core team from Australia to the US had striking results Saez said that technologists can have some pretty abrupt conversations which she39s used to But other staff members found that offputting quotWhen we brought these people in they got to see a warm and fuzzy side of these coders and solutions architectsquot It was surprising for some in a very positive wayClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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FQ at CES: Building Better Team Communication With Tech, and Thoughtful Boundaries

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Janet Stilson

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