Back to work. But where?

This summer, I had the occasion to drop my wife off at the Class A office building where she clicks life-hours away on a part-time basis. She dutifully joined the steady flow of other badge swinging team members, exchanging pleasantries, and making awkward attempts at honoring the expanded personal space going through the double doors. Looks like we are back to work!

As I drove away, I saw another group headed the opposite direction out a back door. Sporting the same lanyards, this team was headed for the source of caffeinated motivation across the street. Their attire was almost business casual, and the pace was labored and wandering. “Need coffee,” I am sure was the bleary-eyed mission goal at 0930 on a Monday.

My day continued with a pleasant interaction in the hotel parking lot. Dressed just like me… in truly business casual, rolly bag in tow, laptop on shoulder, getting out of an obvious rental car, I remarked, “Getting back to business, eh?”

The person laughed and gave me the affirmative. “Yup. Back at it… finally and at light-speed!”

Under normal circumstances (whatever those are) in the summer we would be winding down a bit to enjoy activities with our school-year exhausted families. But, with things opened, we jumped right back in with many pent-up tasks and opportunities, setting ourselves up to blow right through it. I know my calendar was quite booked and continues to be.

The new whine is, “Can’t we do this remotely?” It truly is a valid question. We have spent well over a year doing things we call work from our kitchen table and parking lots, glomming on to the free WiFi signal coming from the restaurant. Most all of us have added significantly to our conference call skills and etiquette expectations. Why can’t we continue to do a long list of work tasks using this efficient tool we all now know quite well?

Recently a client engaged me for a lengthy series of onsite workshops. They required all attendees to be physically present. In their context it made a lot of sense for them to all be in the same room together to work through the changes they wished to make. It was a very successful series of engagements I believe because of the venue. The sponsors did an excellent job with the practical details of such a gathering.

But there were scofflaws. Reasons were wide ranging, but most amounted to the fact that it was not convenient for them to be in a physical place at the times required. Sure, they participated, but those of us in the room had to endure the sounds of traffic, kids arguing, and drive-through squawks as they tried to express their input into the process. All of us in the room would have liked fries with that but were stuck with what the vending machine provided.

Yes, we should continue to question if gathering physically has higher value than just meeting remotely. If it makes sense not to, then remote works just fine. Even if it takes multiple sessions to get through the subject at hand, doing them remotely may be perfect. Sometimes only engaging a group of people for brief periods has benefits. Less contact time for grumpiness to set in.

But, when it makes better sense to gather physically, do it. The time, effort, and costs of such gatherings have always been significant, but the value to the organization and the outcome can be quite high as well. You’ll enjoy “dressing up,” again anyway and not having to iron your sweats.