New technology and "the way we do things here" July 8, 2010

Reference Communication Within an Office - New technology brings new communication benefits and new communication challenges. Any organisation has its own internal culture - unwritten rules about "the way we do things here" that are reinforced by face to face contact and day to day interactions.

As your organisation extends its reach, thanks to new technology, it may start to communicate with people who do not know and share those unwritten rules. This can happen during collaboration with other organisations or even when you are working with people within your organsation but on a different site.

New technology closes the distance gaps - but it doesn't close the cultural gaps. When you put in the new technology for communication, the human and cross-cultural factors of communication need to be considered just as much as the technology itself.