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The benefits and beauty of face-to-face communication are clear
Face-to-face makes it easier to tell what someone else is really thinking. We know that because what we say accounts for less than 10% of what we communicate. Body language does the rest. You can’t read the body language of someone you can’t see.
But how can you factor in trust when making strategic decisions if you can’t meet face-to-face?
We all know how easy it is to misinterpret a text or email. We like to look someone in the eye when they’re sharing important information that can affect how we think about the important decisions we make in life and at work.
A lack of in-person communication can mean we miss out on the reasoning behind decisions. It can make those that advise us feel less accountable, what Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls “skin in the game.”
Just think about all the times you rely on the physical presence of another person to make a decision. Let’s take signatures, for example.
The most trusted way to authenticate a document today is a handwritten signature, which is extremely easy to falsify. Even children do it to their parents all the time.
Signature forgery is one of the most common types of forgery. Cheques, money orders, investment documents, corporate documents and identification documents are all routinely created with and fulfilled with falsified signatures.
It is, obviously, one of the simplest types of forgery to commit when you’re not in the physical presence of the counterparty to witness the signature first hand.
We can’t expect every document to be fulfilled through a notary, so what’s the answer?
Humans have relied on face-to-face communication forever, partly for a lack of a better alternative, but mostly because it works. For organisations to function at scale, remotely, leadership needs to trust the data they’re given to make reliable strategic decisions.
Imagine you’re discussing sensitive data over a conference call that’s vital to determine how best to move forward with an acquisition, a marketing strategy, or how to restructure the team. You need to rely on the quality of information, the people giving it to you, and that no one outside the call is privy.
Today, for the first time ever, the technology we need to make strategic decisions in a remote world has emerged.