I had probably greeted Tom in passing more than 50 times before we actually met. A new student at the MIT Media Lab, he worked just a few doors down the hall from my office, but I was a busy doctoral student and didn’t have much time to cultivate relationships. I was consumed with my research, trying to get artificial intelligence on mobile phones, and I was struggling. Programming the phones was tougher than I had anticipated because I wasn’t familiar with Symbian, the operating system they use. One morning, though, as Tom and I met near the lab’s coffee machine, we started up a conversation. As it turned out, Tom was also developing an application for mobile phones, and I soon discovered that he was an expert on Symbian. I was elated because I had found someone who could help me with some difficult programming problems, but I couldn’t help feeling some regret. Had I only taken any number of chances to introduce myself earlier, his expertise would have saved me weeks of frustration.
Serendipitous Encounters
Lack of communication among colleagues in the workplace is a widespread syndrome at many companies, but two parallel paradigm shifts are helping to change that. The first is a movement from desktop to mobile computing. Wireless communication devices have become standard corporate gear around the world. In millions of... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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