by Casey Ryan
Effective and productive communication is the cornerstone of success in any workplace, including early biopharma companies. Cross-functional interactions and connections can break down silos, increase collaboration, and grease the gears of forward movement. In the virtual workplace, context and visibility across departments are essential for effective communication. For in-the-office teams, this connectedness often comes from catching up after the weekend, small talk in the hallways, and casual updates in the lunchroom. But in a remote work environment where that doesn’t occur naturally, additional effort is needed to build valuable communication and the empathy to understand why and how a colleague is doing what they are doing.
As someone born in the late 90s, the benefits and limitations of virtual communication have been part of my life from a young age. Throughout high school and college, online tools were readily available for organizing, connecting, and sharing information. Tools like Facebook, GroupMe, and standard group texts were central to social and even academic life. The gaps in virtual communication were often bridged by routine or spontaneous in-person conversation. In college, if plans were made via text group and someone was unintentionally excluded, a walk to class the next day or a study session in the library would correct this as the context was provided through natural conversation. If a friend hadn’t responded to your text for a few days, a run-in at the library would update you on the term paper they had been working on for two days straight.
In the remote workplace, the gaps resulting from purely online communication are more difficult to organically rectify. If someone is accidentally left out of a messaging channel regarding an initiative in their function, there is no water cooler conversation where this mistake could naturally be uncovered. If someone must push or reschedule a meeting multiple times, there is no walk to the lunchroom or passing hello to explain the urgent client project they have been clearing their schedule to work on. These types of miscommunications fester and create more siloed teams, misunderstandings, and disconnection.
As I wrote in Experience Meets Innovation: How Corval Leverages Decades of Biopharma Expertise Using AI, the Corval® Platform is a technology-based solution, but the heart of the platform is human mastery and governance. It’s also a great example of an innovative solution that helps fill in the common communication gaps in the remote workplace. In the platform, users have visibility into the high-level and tactical roadmaps of all commercialization business functions. In the platform’s Objective Roadmap, users can see the objectives of all teams across the commercialization portion of the company. These objectives give users insight into what that team is focusing on for the month, quarter, and year. The platform’s Activity Gantt allows users to see the specifics of these objectives, including which team member is working on which activities, and when those activities are happening.
For each activity, users can see dependencies on other items in the Gantt, including dependencies on milestones, and other activities. This can provide users with the context and circumstances for why each activity is happening when it is. Users can also see areas where their own responsibilities overlap with their colleagues in these views. These views are essential in supplementing in-person context. Instead of hearing about a colleague’s initiative at lunch, users can see those initiatives in the Corval platform in the Objective Roadmap, and drill down for more detail in the Gantt to see why those things are occurring and who is responsible.
If someone is accidentally left out of a project relative to them, they can see that mistake in their responsibilities in Corval to rectify the mistake. If someone is pushing out meetings and rescheduling, users can see the urgent project that person is working on in Corval and can see why it is urgent. The biopharma industry really loves their slide decks, but it is beyond me how people can stay in the loop when everything is in PowerPoint!
In a remote workplace that lacks the spontaneous in-person framework, context and visibility are more important than ever for communication to be effective. Corval is a great example of a platform on the forefront of providing a frame of reference and clarity—thus, empowering companies to stay aligned, connected, and successful.
To see how Corval can break down communication silos, reach out to our commercialization experts today.