Startup Blabber #001: Communication Within a Team

It's been very interesting how all of these blockchain companies have maneuvered to get past many inefficiencies existing in the current business world. I myself have been very involved in the startup ecosystem for the past decade, co-founding two different companies. For me, they weren't blockchain companies. The topic I wanted to focus on today was physical presence of the company.

The first company that I co-founded did not have too many issues with regards to physical location. The entire team could function out of one building. The questions asked were limited to stuff like "Should we go to a location that's widely spaced across one floor or go to a smaller building but spaced out across multiple floors?" People might think these are silly questions (when I first came across the questions, I was in the same pool), but dialogue and communication is very different between the two layouts proposed. For one, people tend to not use the stairs, and always wait for the elevator. These wait times add up. Also people tend to get lazy. I'm sure there are ways to solve these issues, but I would, at this point in time, always be a proponent of the one-floor-business if possible.

The second company tried to take a more global approach. We had offices across two different countries. This is where everything gets really tricky. First of all, communication between offices has to be in the same language, and this becomes an issue if one, or both, offices can't use their mother tongue. Using a secondary language opens up so much room for interpretation. People resort to using apps and tools like Skype, Zoom, Whatsapp, etc. to communicate and I truly believe much communication is lost when I can't "sense" the other person I am talking to. I may be old school, but I always valued the presence of another human being for important discussion. When typing something, especially in your second language, the emotional aspect is lost to a certain extent, creating more barriers & misconceptions within the same team, which ultimately leads to time and effort lost in trying to get everyone on the same page over and over again.

I was truly impressed with how today's blockchain companies are operating nowadays and how efficient everything works. It might not be the case, especially because I am a not-involved-person randomly peering into a company's door, but from what I can see, there are large-scale projects, that seem to have the right concoction for success. For example, Steem apparently has an office, but most of the team is spread out all over the US and the world, and oddly enough, everyone seems to be on the same page. How on earth is everyone able to so seamlessly interact with one another and stay on the same page?

Could people share their experiences on how to manage communication within a team/company?