The connection conversation

Having come through the other side of three years of intense corporate rebuilding and reorganization, we’re starting to talk about what that means for companies and the workforce in general, especially with changes almost every day and at every company.?

At the center are two conversations: How can technology help, and what else do we need alongside technology, both addressing connecting and collaborating??

We’re working with a number of customers to laying out very speedy proof-of-concept solutions with our newer technologies, to support the movement to office spaces and hybrid spaces. It's interesting that this applies equally (though to varying degrees, depending on the company) to office spaces and remote work.?

Old ways of thinking no longer speak to current expectations around connecting people to each other. An example is how we’re developing collaboration?spaces, different kinds of meeting spots that are neither 6x6 huddle rooms nor open-plan offices.?

This is the practical side of the conversation. The strategic, higher-level discussion is around developing?collaboration solutions: Going beyond the room, to include everyone inside the room and room and outside of it, and in particular how they?relate?to each other, work?with?each other,?engage?and be productive with each other.?

Right now, with many of our customers, we’re talking about that for the long term. Companies work on two-year plans, five-year plans, and sometimes even longer. They need to start provisioning now for the economy we will have in two years’ time. That means assessing current and future assets, spending money in different areas today, and starting to walk paths towards accessing new opportunities tomorrow.?

The employee side of the connection conversation

Technology companies interact with technology in specific ways that are oftentimes different from other companies, often pushing against the boundaries of what’s possible.??

I see many companies still working out?how to create the right environment, many of them feel very productive working at home, but managers often struggling to trust them.?

Whether remote, hybrid or on-site/in-person, companies need to create, build and support personal, meaningful connections. Technology can provide that. It can provide convenience and efficiency, unlike anything we’ve ever had before. Yes, it can result in distraction and complication, too, but when technology is deployed and used the right way, at the right times, the benefits far outweigh such distractions.?

This new flexibility and these new aspirations are also creating something else new in the workplace:?Empathy.?

We need to develop real, authentic empathy for people to develop real, authentic relationships and connections, with colleagues and customers, to create phenomenal dynamics based on trying new things together, failing fast together, and learning together, to drive the best possible outcomes for the long-term.?

Connection reveals the power in “team”?

Technology plays its part in the realistic building of relationships and connections by enabling teams to collaborate, share knowledge, make better decisions that are clear to all, assess and act on risks, identify opportunities, and more.

Here's an example. I was thrilled to be able to attend an F1 race in Austin during the 2022 season, representing Lenovo.?

It was amazing to see our signage everywhere. What was more amazing still was being able to get into the nuts and bolts of the sheer amount of data that is required to make decisions about every aspect of F1: Planning the race, executing the race, and delivering the race to the fans worldwide.?

It’s overwhelming.?

And our technology is part of helping them make those decisions better.?

I remember something Vlad Rozanovich, our President for North America at Lenovo, said about the partnership: High-performance computing, high-performance racing, high-performance people. I love that. The collaboration and trust required in the pits is very much a model for how great teams can and should work together in an organization, especially a high-pressure one.?

The customer side of the connection conversation

I’ve seen this at play in several customer relationships recently.?

With one customer, we were talking about three different deals in three different countries, based across different arms of the business. We were able to leverage the collaborative relationship to bundle three separate, differently-timed deals together to deliver a?global?strategy. Harder to set up initially, the outcomes were better for the customer.?

Here’s another example: the?Series One - Google Meet room kits?we developed with Google. The goal was to create a market together for this kind of room kit solution, but Google also wanted room kits for their own teams and buildings around the world.?

This was going to take up a large portion of our manufacturing cycle. So we worked with Google to manage volumes and a staggered rollout for their internal use, to then be able to manufacture sufficient kits for customers as well. It required sacrifice and hard work on both our parts, but the customers of both companies benefitted.

From the hypothetical to the real

Any lack of connection or collaboration will adversely affect and company operating globally and seeking to expand. A company with great relationships and a market share of 85% in North America might, using big data analysis tools and metrics, discover that it's not doing well in Australia, failed to penetrate in Belgium, and just lost a big bid in Japan. The insights about where opportunities are being missed allow it to invest where it needs to – in underperforming markets where potential exists.

That only comes from connection – from employees speaking together, working together, and sharing information and analyses, worldwide.?

Leveraging technology to connect, collect and analyze all this data, break down the silos between geographies, industries, and portfolios, results in eye-opening opportunities and revelations. That’s how technology helps: To get more information to more people to help a company decide where to spend its time, energy, and money.?

The world is a big place. That’s valuable.?

The task is therefore to systematically and productively make it smaller and more effective by using technology to connect, in all its meanings.