Q&A: Declan Doyle, Plantronics

Define collaboration in just three words

  1. Understanding
  2. Empathy
  3. Teamwork

How important is effective communication to modern business success?

It's critical. Modern, flexible businesses simply cannot exist withjout effective communication tools and policies.

What are the key benefits of having the right collaboration and communication strategy in place and acting upon it?

  1. Cost savings
  2. Employees retention
  3. Business continuity

What are companies currently doing well when it comes to collaboration and communication?

Using mobile devices to provide more flexible communications options for employees.

Conversely, what could they be doing better/more of/less of? And why?

Video. It allows true teamwork for flexible collaboration. If deployed properly.

Who in the organisation should be taking the lead when it comes to choosing the right tools and implementing them successfully?

It has to come from the very top. If the CEO is not invested in change, it will not succeed.

How do you ensure you're collaborating and communicating effectively? Do you have any words from the wise or anecdotes from other real-world experience you can share?

The three elements of effective migration for flexible working must be in place:

  1. Bricks
  2. Bytes
  3. Behaviour

At Plantronics we have implemented these elements and are now reaping the rewards.

Where do you see the market and adoption of communication and collaboration tools headed?

To a mobile-first and cloud-first world. Anything that doesn't work in this way will not succeed.

What will successful corporate collaboration and communication look like five or 10 years from now?

Visual tools will use Augmented Reality and VR and any technology being used will be a wearable form factor.

Why should people attend this event?

To understand both the learning of organisation will have been on this journey for several years, find out about future trends and gain insight from industry experts.

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