ConnectMinds Comment | On face-to-face meetings
Why we insist on face-to-face meetings
Meeting in the Washington DC Employee Experience Group
By: Lau Hesselbæk Andreasen, Partner & Knowledge Broker at ConnectMinds
MS Teams, Zoom, Webex and all the other tools that allow us to meet at a distance are highly useful in many situations.
Useful, but hardly conducive of great interpersonal relationships. They have helped us to continue working effectively through lockdowns and isolation and they are great for maintaining contact when we are too far from each other to gather in the same room. They were already being used extensively before the pandemic struck, but were suddenly the only show in town if we wanted to see the people we work with; or rather: if we wanted to see anyone outside our own household, period. We have become much better at conducting efficient work meetings through a screen; at using the many handy features and functionalities offered within the respective tools. So far, so good.
But sometimes meetings are not merely about efficiency; sometimes we meet to exchange and work through complex ideas, process multidimensional questions and scenarios or dive deep into difficult dilemmas and challenges. When we do, we unquestionably make faster progress and achieve better outcomes when we’re able to make use of all our senses; when people meet face to face and are able to read and sense all the things that go on in the group; body language, tensions, facial gestures, frustration, excitement, disappointment; all things that will not travel well through the screen. And this is exactly the type of discussions and collaboration ConnectMinds was born to facilitate.
This doesn’t mean that we won’t be making much more extensive use of online meetings and tools in the future, but we see them as useful compliments to the in-person activities. The discussions, conversations and collaboration can be continued online between the in-person meetings. But they won’t work on their own.
More than a decade ago, we stated 3 reasons why we insist on face-to-face meetings:
Because answers and responses cannot be edited in advance.
Because we can see and feel each other’s reactions and gestures.
Because face-to-face conversations are difficult, but fruitful.
We believe these reasons are as valid as they ever were.
So:
After many prolonged restrictions and several postponed dates, we are thrilled to be reigniting in-person meetings in our ON LOCATION groups.
You can see when the next meeting in your local group takes place on our website and you can sign up for all upcoming meetings during the rest of 2022 in the Events section on our member platform, ConnectUs.
We look forward to seeing every part of all of you; to hearing what you have been up to and to discussing your current challenges and opportunities. Yay!