Yesterday I Totally Microwaved a Lecture

The inventors of the microwave thought their device would be used for cooking whole meals from scratch. It never really was, but users found out that it reheated food pretty well, saving the appliance from the graveyard of failed inventions.

Yesterday, rendered immobile by back pain, I Skyped in to listen to a 3 hour lecture (thanks!). I’m not sure that the developers of Skype had planned for people to just listen in on something for 3 hours at a time, but it worked reasonably well. Naturally, the class was on Technology and Innovation Strategy. I love it.

That got me thinking about human interaction. I could have just read the material. That would have given me knowledge of the theory, right? Of course. Listening was better though, as it allowed me to hear the discussion around these points, elaboration and less overt aspects like intonation and excitement in someone’s voice. Best yet would have been to be there, of course, where I could have watched people’s reactions, and gotten a sense of the vibe of the room. I wouldn’t have missed all of the body language so crucial in our communication.

I remember this in Ethiopia as well. As a few times I noted tension building between our Netherlands-based staff and our partners. Emails were flying back and forth, but I pushed them to get on the phone with each other. There are some things that just aren’t communicated by email. Emotions, pauses, subtle but important elements of verbal communication that add to the meaning in way we can’t always define. Over time, missing these communicative elements can lead to wider gaps in understanding. Especially when people come form different cultures (Americans, Dutch and Ethiopians all have different ways of saying the same thing, for example).

Finally, the experience yesterday underscored a core argument for doing an MBA in the first place. Sure, 90% of the technical material can be found in management books. But that won’t, in itself, achieve the depth of understanding (and never mind enthusiasm) that good classroom interaction will. Given the spread of lower forms of communication, It’s worth remembering that in-person contact is valuable.

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Tagged as: communication, interaction, mba, oxford sbs, skype