Being together is not like Zoom.
As so much attention is given to adapting to different working norms, broadly hybrids of working in an office or working online, less than two days into quarantine I feel like sharing some thoughts.
Being together is not like Zoom
I arrived in Cayman late afternoon Wednesday 25th and so until about the evening of Tuesday 31st in quarantine with my oldest son in his condo.
For the last 18 months all of us have been messaging and on Zoom constantly, but it has been 18 months since I’ve seen my boys. Additionally, for the past few years, whenever I have come home to Cayman I haven’t been staying in the same place as my sons, but now the two oldest have their own place, I am staying with them. We were both working yesterday, but multiple times in the day we would chat in the kitchen for coffee or a meal, then once we were both done for the day we chilled out on the sofa. This feels accentuated right now, as the oldest chose to quarantine in place with me, so it is just the two of us, wristbands on, staying inside for six days. Though I won’t see the other two for a few more days yes, already this is a strong reminder that being together is not like being on Zoom.
Engineer in space at work for serendipity
The parallels of this to the workplace feel very clear to me, it is in the spaces in between formal meetings that connections are made, relationships built, ideas form either instantly or over time.
So yes, let’s go back to the office, but not with some relentless focus on efficiency and time saved over time spent to get some particular output.
Where we can do that mechanically, let us all recognise that, ultimately, it is not a choice between staff at home or in a city office, as those jobs will inevitably move to lower-cost countries.
The power of having people together is, just like pure science, often about the serendipitous discoveries when people connect (think Viagra and Penicillin, both accidents) not the results of efficient business process engineering.
As you seek to design and engineer the best way to create a new and hybrid work environment and working practices, do focus on engineering in space at work for serendipity. After all, being together is not like Zoom.
Oh, and as I close this post, once I come out of quarantine, I have well over 20 meetings planned for 8 working days in Cayman. None of them has any particular agenda, yet I am sure at least a few serendipitous thoughts and actions will emerge. You can create space to generate serendipity, as I wrote about here.