Collaboration and being able to work well with others is a skill that almost everyone needs to be aware of when entering the workforce. As the digital world continues to expand, so does the way we communicate with others.
With electronics and many other forms of communication becoming easily accessible, people are slowing fading away from one on one facial communication and moving towards electronic communication like emails, phone calls, and text messages. To help further discuss this topic, I’ll be talking about how collaboration has been changing throughout the years and where it might be heading in the future.
In today’s digital age, it’s extremely important to be able to talk to and work with other people even if you aren’t around them. This became possible and more accessible than ever with collaborating services like email and google applications like docs; PowerPoint, sheets and many other applications that empower you to work with other people. Ever since the beginning of the 20th century, emails have controlled and taken count for most discussions between co-workers. According to this article by vox, “Despite the appearance of modern communication and collaboration tools, “old-school” methods of emails, phone calls and texts still make up 75 percent of all communications with co-workers” (O’Donnell, 2017).
Businesses are now pushing their workers to be as creative as possible and these workers are doing that by collaborating with people they work with and perhaps people in the same field as them. Today there are hundreds of online video conferences that can be attended, as well as other forms of messaging that can take place online. These online video rooms allow workers to discuss their thoughts with other people all while being in a different location as them. This form of collaboration will continue to grow in the years to come as it has created tons of success for employees who need to communicate with others all while saving time and resources. Being able to send out a mass messages to your employees is also another notable thing that will stick around for years to come as it is a way of communication that saves both time and resources as well.
One thing to take note of is all the forms of communication that have become available. Online communication is becoming flooded to the point that there are too many ways to be able to communicate and collaborate with others. This can cause unclear or cluttered communication. Perhaps employees don’t see these messages as important as they are constantly being spammed with messages from co-workers or their employer. Perhaps this is why certain forms of communication like email, phone calls, and text messaging is still one of the most commonly used forms of communication when it comes to collaborating in the work field as it reduces confusion but still allows others to work together when needed. Overall, communicating with others while at work is a key resource and skill that is expected between most employees in order to work at the highest level with the best outcome. With that being said, I believe new forms of communication will continue to surprise us in the years to come as the digital world is continuously changing and evolving.
Jared's Blog 