Collaboration – Remotely or In-person?

Several businesses today operate remotely – Not all people involved in the organization are in the same building. With such a trend, there is a major issue that businesses must deal with – Remote Collaboration.  HipChat is a remote collaboration software that businesses can use to collaborate remotely.

HipChat

HipChat is a collaborative team communication software designed to help teams work together on various projects. It has a number of features and integrations businesses can use to communicate effectively.

Features

Group Messaging
File Sharing
Unlimited Users and integrations
Video Chat
Screensharing

Integrations

There is also a long list of integrations that make the experience that much better. These integrations are listed on the HipChat website. If the long list of integrations does not have that one integration that you are looking for, you can create your own integration using the HipChat API.

When working on a team project, using HipChat to collaborate as opposed to in-person collaboration can be quite useful. HipChat, with its unlimited number of chatrooms you can create in one room makes it easy for the team to divide the project and create sub-teams to work on different portions of the project. Better yet, this feature can be used to discuss multiple topics in different rooms. You can also take advantage of other features such as screensharing, filesharing, and dozens of other integrations in the chat, which makes it easy to share a wide variety of files with the team members. The data in the chatrooms is also stored, so that you can always come back and re-read something you may have missed. There is a search feature in place which allows users to search for specific key words in the history of the chatroom. Finally, HipChat synchronizes across all devices, so all members can stay connected to it all times and never miss a message.

 

Face to Face Meetings

Face to face meetings are the old fashioned in-person meetings, where everyone would sit around a table and have a discussion. There are many features in these types of meetings that cannot be replicated by any collaboration.

Features

Body Language Visibility
Drives Active Participation
Group Chat (in-person)
No Distractions

Face to face meetings make it simple to have a conversation with all your team members. One of its main advantages is the visibility of body language. Body language speaks volumes, especially in a business setting, where opinions and ideas are discussed. No collaboration software has been able to replicate such a feature. Furthermore, the face to face meeting environment helps all members connect and have a group discussion without barriers. This setting drives active participation; if somebody sits idle at the table, the group will notice. Thus, the person will more likely choose to participate in the discussion. Similarly, members will also be discouraged from engaging in other activities while in the meeting, therefore paying attention to the discussion taking place.

HipChat

Pros

• Can chat from anywhere
• Multiple members can chat at a time
• History is saved
• Time not necessarily limited
• Chats organized by rooms

Cons

• People distracted during chat
• Chat not facilitated
• Technical issues can halt progress
• Uneven participation
• Misinterpretation of messages

 

In-person meetings

Pros

• Discussion facilitated
• Messages unlikely to be misinterpreted
• More even participation
• Meetings not affected by technical issues
• People forced to be attentive

Cons

• Limited to a certain space
• History not entirely saved (depends on minutes recorder)
• Conversations not organized by rooms
• Time is limited
• One person must talk at a time

 

Both methods of collaborations have their own appeal. It is up to those who choose to use it that decide whether or not it is worth it to invest time in learning the software. In today’s ever-growing trends towards technology, it can be quite beneficial to take the time to learn how to use a remote collaboration software.

 

Sources

5 Reasons Why Meeting Face-to-Face Is Best. (2012, October 23). Retrieved from https://timemanagementninja.com/2012/10/5-reasons-why-meeting-face-to-face-is-best/

A. (2015, March 4). HipChat: Explained with tacos! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcggeWCVs-0

Fougere, R. (2015, November 22). 6 Fantastic Benefits of Face-to-Face Meetings. Retrieved from http://think2grow.com/face-to-face-meetings/