High tech! High speed! High touch?

Hightech! Highspeed! Hightouch?

March 15, 2023 – "You save time." With this promise, the industry continuously offers us new products and services. However, the more intensively individuals and organizations use these, the more they seemingly find themselves under time pressure. And communication often reduces to a mutual exchange of information.

The information and communication industry continuously offers us new products that supposedly help us save time. They often do. Yet, at the same time, it seems as if the more we use these products, the more we are under time pressure. This is similarly true in companies. Although almost all business processes are now IT-supported, they increasingly feel: We can keep up with market changes less and less.

A central reason for this is: The benefits of modern (information and communication) technology are utilized by all companies. Therefore, business processes across the economy are becoming faster, and innovation cycles shorter. And the effective management of time? It is increasingly becoming a success factor, which is also evidenced by management terms like “Just-in-time” and “time-to-market.”

 Multitasking characterizes everyday (work) life

 In response to the growing time pressure, many people react privately by further technicizing their home environment, so that, for example, their gardens are watered at the push of a button. Additionally, they increasingly practice multitasking, although studies show: Humans are poor multitaskers. For doing several things simultaneously means constantly splitting one's attention, which leads to more mistakes.

Multitasking is also common practice in companies. This is brought about by modern work structures. Today, only a few employees have a job description with clearly defined tasks. Rather, they are to achieve specified goals in a team. Hence, they depend on input from colleagues in their work and must frequently respond to their concerns. Accordingly, it can be challenging for them to plan their workday—especially when the targets frequently change. Moreover, they usually handle multiple tasks simultaneously. This also costs concentration and generates stress.

Similarly, this applies at the organizational level. Previously, the maxims held by organizational developers stated: After a change project, there should be a period of calm in a company so that the new status quo can solidify, and employees can catch their breath. Those good old days are gone. Today, in most companies, so many overlapping (change, innovation, and transformation) projects run in parallel that so-called multi-project management has become a new key competence.

Communication reduces to information

 Living and working in such an environment has consequences. Here’s an example: Companies repeatedly emphasize that their leaders are (co-)responsible for the development of their employees. However, in most businesses, the time leaders spend communicating face-to-face with their employees continually decreases—also because a large part of internal company communication and thus employee management is conducted via email or digitally, especially when many employees work from home and the teams are largely “virtual.”

This deteriorates the "social glue" in companies. Because there is a qualitative difference between merely reading someone's email or sitting across from them, looking into their eyes, perceiving their physical reactions, and responding to them. This creates a different quality of relationship as well as mutual understanding; additionally, it establishes a higher level of commitment. Therefore, it is no coincidence that many conflicts arise and escalate more frequently in electronic communication.

In many companies, interpersonal communication increasingly reduces to mutual information today. Two things are overlooked:

First: Human communication also thrives on the partners perceiving and experiencing each other as individuals.

Second: Personal contact is also important for relationship building and trust development.

Identification with companies declines

If personal communication is insufficient in an organization, it often has far-reaching implications:

• Employees feel less perceived as individuals and valued,

• they can contribute less as a whole to the organization,

• experiential learning is hindered,

• flow experiences in teams are thwarted, and

• conflicts are either not addressed or are resolved in the wrong way (for example, via email).

This also decreases productivity.

Another consequence is: The trust between employees and between leaders and their employees declines. Employees become isolated, which leads to lower identification with the company. Therefore, leaders should also reflect on:

• When and what do we consciously not communicate via email or digitally, but rather in personal contact? And:

• How do we promote informal communication in largely virtual collaboration, as it is also important for relationship building?

Otherwise, there is a risk that they will eventually communicate with their employees almost exclusively through electronic media—especially since this form of communication is so easy and convenient.

Preserving the "soul" of the companies

The top decision-makers in companies should also ask themselves: How do we create a new balance in our organization between

• changing and preserving,

• stress and relaxation,

• business requirements and human needs?

Otherwise, there is a risk that their companies will become soulless entities with which employees can identify less and less.

Author: Barbara Liebermeister