Institute For The Future

Better Than Being There

I used video teleconferencing for the first time in 1973. The video wasn’t very good and the audio was worse, but otherwise the design vision was pretty much the same as the systems of today: an invisible wall between two groups of people able to see and hear each other. In time, that design vision trusted, the view of each other will become holographic and perhaps the two sides will even be able to virtually reach through the glass and touch each other using some form of haptic interface. This might seem like we’re on the path to progress, but innovation in video teleconferencing seems to be driven by a kind of unconscious horseless-carriage logic that troubles me. The design vision seems to be based in an unexamined assumption that in-person meetings are the ultimate form of human communication, so the closer virtual meetings can get to in-person, the better. Rather than designing to simulate being there, I think we should be designing to be better than being there.

Avoiding the “Uncanny Valley”

Emerging technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality will provide new opportunities to communicate more effectively, productively, and persuasively than ever before. And moving forward, they will also open the doors to forms of remote presence that could be off-putting and alienating. This has a parallel to an idea that was touched upon in 1970, when a robotics professor named Masahiro Mori at the Tokyo Institute of Technology wrote a classic essay in which he coined the vivid term “uncanny valley” to describe how humans react to humanoid robots. Essentially, the more human-like a robot appears to be, the more positively we react to it. That is, until they come very close to looking like an actual human, but are still recognizable as non-human, and the dissonance creates an uncanny, unsettling feeling in us. A robot with a cartoon-like face is more appealing to most people than a robot with no face. But a robot that looks like a living mannequin is close enough to human that it makes us uncomfortable.

As we move into a world of ambient communications, we will likely see a similar uncanny valley emerge for leadership-at-a-distance. In climbing toward the goal of leaders being there without being there, our affinity for those leaders will increase as their virtual presence increases—until we reach an uncanny valley where leaders are perceived as being weirdly or inappropriately present.

In a world of networked, ambient communications, leaders will be able to be present in the background much more of the time. This could be reassuring in some situations, but eerie in others. Leaders will be able to monitor performance with much greater detail, even if they are not physically present. What used to be called “workflow systems” will be capable of much more detailed monitoring of progress—or lack of progress—through a ubiquitous mesh of sensors. Blended reality leadership presence could become Big Brother incarnate, with performance monitoring turning into eavesdropping, measuring employees’ stress levels and emotional states, and cataloging worker output on a minute-by-minute basis. Such tracking might even help leaders in the short-term, but the behavior would cross into the uncanny valley of inhumane co-presence that is unwanted, uninvited, and difficult to shake.

On the other side of the uncanny valley, though, is a kind of presence that will be better than in person. And though technology will have an important role in enabling this kind of presence, the best examples of it today involve no technology at all. I have worked with several companies over the years where the founder had such strong leadership presence that it was like they were there with us in the room. At W.L. Gore & Associates, founder Bill Gore was such a charismatic presence that he continues to live throughout the company. His eloquent quotes are on the walls and his presence is baked into the culture. At most meetings that I have attended at Gore, someone referred to “Bill” at least once. Again, it was as if he were there with us, even though he is no longer living. His presence is an essential part of their culture. Many of today’s Gore leaders seem to embody Bill’s values and priorities across the generations. Again, however, this kind of founder presence could become uncanny and unproductive if taken to extremes.

If magnetic leaders, with clear and consistent values and vision, can project a presence even when they are no longer alive, how might a living leader be present while lacking only physical proximity? Of course, to begin with, a leader needs a vivid presence that is strong and worth sharing. But taking that as a given, the next decade presents new opportunities for communicating whatever leadership presence you have as effectively as possible over long distances. The best leaders will figure out how to be there without being there—while skirting or passing through the uncanny valley of eerie over-connection.