Leadership. With Lasers.

Hands-on managers usually like to make some kind of personal connection with all their employees. But how can they do it when employees are spread across several offices, in different cities, even in different countries?

Evernote CEO Phil Libin uses technology to bridge the gap. Huge video monitors, along with webcams, are installed in high traffic areas of both the corporate headquarters in Mountainview, California, and studio office in Austin, Texas. But the monitors are not there for videoconferencing. The idea was to create, essentially, a window from one office to the other to connect the two spaces in a way that would encourage casual chats between coworkers in different places. The connection, Libin explains, helps to foster a cohesive atmosphere between the main office and the satellite studio. “We very specifically wanted to avoid the feeling that if you’re not working at headquarters, you’re in a second-place office” (Libin, quoted in Bryant, 2012, para 26).

But encouraging interconnectedness between his scattered employees wasn’t quite enough for Libin. He wanted a way to be in both offices, even when he couldn’t be in either one. And so, enter the robots: Libin can log into “his anybot,” a six-foot-tall, mobile “telepresence” (think of a Segway with an iPad on top) and take a virtual stroll around the office, carrying a live feed from his webcam. The robot serves as his eyes and ears and allows him to have casual conversations with employees he meets as he drives his robotic avatar around. Libin also points out that the robot has a laser pointer. “You can shoot lasers, which is just good design,” he explains. “You shouldn’t build a robot without a laser” (quoted in Bryant, 2012, para. 28).

As a programmer turned CEO, it’s probably not surprising that Libin is so eager to embrace technology. But just as he’s brought in some new electronic wizardry, he’s also gotten rid of some conventional technology. Specifically, employees at Evernote do not have phones on their desks. Because the work they do generally does not involve phone calls, the company discourages chatter in the work space; employees can chat on their company-provided cell phones just by walking to a quiet area. “If you have a phone at your desk, it’s just sitting there and you’re kind of encouraging people to talk on it. . . . If you’re at your desk, you should be working. And that’s actually worked really well. I don’t think anyone misses phones. Even though it’s one big room, it’s actually fairly quiet because no one is sitting there talking at their desk” (quoted in Bryant, 2012, para. 12).