It’s remarkable how sometimes we miss the obvious because our brains are wired to find the next best thing or look for new or innovative solutions, sometimes we look straight past the simplest truths.
The world we inhabited before Covid seems like a distant memory now. Of course, Covid affected all aspects of our lives and the lives we lived, but for the sake of this post, we’ll focus on business.
Covid wasn’t the first major event to impact how we conducted business. Prior to September 2011, business travel was commonplace with most organizations, especially mid-market to enterprise sized companies. Executives, sales representatives, and HR professionals, to name a few regularly made the trip to the airport and back to connect with clients, colleagues, or other business relationships. It was just an expectation of their positions, and budgets were allocated to accommodate. Not even CFO’s or other finance department managers challenged the cost.
Prior to December 2019, being in the office Monday to Friday was also not just the norm, it was a condition of employment. Very few, if any pushed for a “work from home” accommodation, accommodations that were rarely granted. We lived and worked in a world that was closely intertwined and dependent on in-situ connection. Meetings were held, coffee’s shared, and “doing lunch” was commonplace. One need only visit an office complex food hall today to see how that’s changed.
But it was Covid that dealt the one-two punch to what was. Not only was proximity to others considered dangerous, in many jurisdictions it was outright illegal, and by dint of that, all sorts of costs were eliminated. No more office space, no more traveling, no more incentive trips or conferences to name just a few. This too created a huge opportunity for industries that offered “virtual” communication. Gone was the world of up close and personal, because communication and working with others was no longer deemed to be dependent on on-site and in-person, or so we were led to believe.
And as is mostly always the case, once the horse has left the barn, well, you know how that goes…
Air travel was slow to non-existent to return post 911. Not because “in person” ceased to offer a competitive advantage, but because once those costs were eliminated, most C-suite types were aghast at the notion of reimplementing them.
So too with being in the office, or so it would seem. Six or so years later now, organizations are moving increasingly more back to the office, accepting that “work from home” came at a cost. Office space comes at a cost too, but at what contribution to the top and bottom line? Why are CEO’s and industries mandating employees back to the office? Simple, because it’s better for the top line, it’s better for the bottom line, it’s better for business.
Public companies who are in constant pursuit of reducing costs, and that all too often focus on quarterly results, don’t care all that much about supporting strategies that drive future growth when those strategies impact profit in the here and now, a denaturing of common and proven best practices if you will.
The case is clear. While Teams, Zoom, and a myriad other platforms offer face to face, none offer in person. So, what’s the difference?
“Virtual”, while perceived to be equivalent to in person, provides less connection.
Someone’s posture, how they sit in a chair, how they shake your hand, how they cross their legs or fidget are all cues and part of building a connection. Even scent, be it theirs or the room you are meeting in, all play a factor. Smiles are rarely an emotion only reflected in a person’s face, usually the whole body is involved. Same goes for negativity, what they do with their hands or shoulders etc.
In person, people can’t mute their audio or pause their cameras causing disruption to the connection or even more importantly, “connecting” . They can’t check out and deal with other matters, or even more troubling in virtual group settings, surf the web or emails when all the while others think they are participating.
Adding another stick of butter to a baking recipe is a tangible cost and easily quantified; a direct effect on profit and loss can be calculated. The benefits of meeting in person, that to a greater or lesser extent require resources, some tangible, others not, like the cost of an airplane ticket, or only someone’s time, are more difficult to quantify in a P&L analysis, it’s subjective.
Make no mistake, connection is what leads to connecting, and relationships, and those with the best relationships will prevail most often. To the seasoned business leader, in person is an easy sell, and in today’s day and age, it’s an enormously underutilized strategic advantage.
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