The Art of Multitasking

Recently, Carter has begun to explore ways of leveraging the Web to communicate with staffers around the globe. Each month, he conducts a Webcast with a different employee group. This past May, he fielded questions submitted via the Web from the Cingular team in Puerto Rico. The chat site was projected onto a large whiteboard so that Carter and a team of HR pros could read the questions as they came in. Standing at the center of a U-shaped arrangement of computers, Carter answered some 30 questions over the course of an hour, while a team of typists feverishly pounded out his replies and posted them to the chat site.

For all of Carter's experience with wireless tools and virtual conferencing, he is careful to note that occasionally there's no substitute for good old-fashioned face time. With a nod toward the can on his shelf, he laughs and says, "When whoop ass is involved, you need to make an in-person appearance. You can't read people's reactions when you're talking to them through email. Also, if you're making a pitch or you need to engage in any kind of persuasion, email or a Web chat just won't cut it. The phone is better, but a meeting is best." As with his no-gadgets-during-meetings policy, Carter's point is well-taken: The most important thing to know about technology is when to turn it off.

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
Candace Petersen, VP, corporate marketing and strategy, InFocus Corp.
Catching up with staff in four countries and three distant time zones keeps Candace Petersen up at all hours. Despite the promise of Web conferencing and email, however, she relies on an older, simpler tool to get the job done: voice mail.

As vice president of marketing at digital-projection industry leader InFocus, Petersen works with developers who are scattered across the globe: in the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and Wilsonville, Oregon, where InFocus is based. Communication is key, but reliability is just as important. Particularly in developing nations, where even dial-up Internet access is spotty and download speeds are stuck in first gear, plain-old telephone service is often the better way to go. "Email is great, but so many of my people are traveling. If they're in, say, China, where it's tough to sync up laptops, how do you reach them?" Petersen asks. "Voice mail, especially for urgent matters, makes more sense."

Petersen and her staff still use email, but they use it to send messages that aren't as time sensitive. The team sends documents via email, as well as project updates, longer conversation threads, and follow-ups to voice mails. "I make it a condition of employment for my staff to check voice mail at least once a day," says Petersen. "We have the same voice-mail system all over the world, and everyone has a box on the central system. No matter where we are, voice mail keeps us connected."

To make the system as efficient as possible, Petersen's team frequently uses advanced voice-mail functions such as message forwarding and group lists. "As people report in, they'll often use 'reply all' to update everyone on the team," she says. "I also send out what I call 'assumptive' group voice mails, where I lay out our challenge for the week and ask for input on particular issues or projects." The staff has 24 hours to respond with comments.

Petersen insists that staffers begin voice-mail messages with their name, their phone number, and a headline that encapsulates the message. She concludes every voice mail by leaving her phone number a second time, so that anyone who missed the number the first time won't have to replay the entire message.

Staggering conversations across times zones can get confusing, and the time lag between calls is sometimes frustrating. So twice a month, Petersen convenes the group for a real-time conference call. "We try to pick the best time for all locales," she says. "The Singapore guys often bear the brunt of the time difference, but I try to see that no one gets the midnight slot every call." Making sure that everyone takes that 12 AM call at least once in a while makes the burden easier to bear -- and shows that Petersen doesn't hold U.S.-based employees in higher esteem than those in other countries. On her team, everyone is equal.

INSTANT MESSENGER
Anne Altman, managing director, IBM
Anne Altman has a 16-year-old's zeal for instant messaging -- because she has found a very grown-up way to leverage the technology at the bluest of blue-chip companies: IBM. "Instant messaging has made the biggest difference for me," she says. "When I'm on a sales call and the customer needs a status update or a piece of information that I don't have on hand, I just send a message to someone on my team, and I get an answer on the spot. Instant messaging eliminates the headaches of playing phone tag and constantly checking email."