Face-to-face versus online? Why not both?

I think both video meetings and meeting in person have different benefits. Each of these kinds of meetings result in different conversations, all productive, all good in different ways.

My personal preference is to be able to speak with everybody in-person, whether colleague or customer. But I am glad to have the option to move the meeting online if that works better for everyone involved, rather than canceling or postponing the meeting altogether.

Before the pandemic, I would travel to Europe, and try to stop in every major market we operate in and meet with as many customers as possible in a very short period of time.

It was often a brutal pace, and I have left many meetings wishing I could have had more time, or wishing that a particular person could attend, when they’ve had to give their apologies due to clashing schedules, travel restrictions, etc. It’s impossible for me to be in two places at once, as well, so I would be forced to choose where to spend my time.

These things are all still true in some cases, but practically speaking, I can talk to more customers if I use both in-person and online meetings.

But it’s not just about the number of meetings. It’s about the quality of each kind of meeting.

Face to Face

Face-to-face meetings are often more relaxed. You can talk about many different things that wouldn’t ordinarily come up in a time-limited, topic-bounded video conference.

Meetings in person often take a turn into uncovering opportunities precisely because of this phenomenon, where you can go on tangents because you have the time, freedom, and ability to respond to facial expressions, body language, and other subtle reactions that are harder to see or sense on camera.

I have found that many customers are pleased that I’ve attended meetings in person. It shows them that our relationship has value, that we are happy to take the time to build it in many different ways, and it shows them that they are important. Everybody is aware that travel today is difficult; when people put in the time and effort to travel, it has a great deal of meaning.

I know that in some cultures, in-person meetings and personal gatherings like meals are excellent ways in which customers and businesses build trust before or during business relationships. The broader relationship is key to the success of business engagements.

These meetings can also result in the customer’s wider team coming together into the office to work on our business projects and discussions together. As we know, collaboration such as this is one of the best reasons to get together in-person.?

Video Conferencing Online

When we first started doing so many video meetings in the early pandemic, I was surprised by how personal and intimate they seemed to be.

People you spoke to - whether inside your company or external - were in their home offices, or their living rooms, or their backyards. They had spouses or children behind them, cats roaming over the keyboard, packages being delivered. They could introduce you to their favorite coffee shops, their bookshelves, their families. It really helped to establish a more personal connection than you get seeing people in offices or restaurants.

It also made it so easy to connect with people you might never otherwise have been able to speak to face-to-face without significant effort or random chance. Video conferencing is also more inclusive and accessible for people from many different communities, both in terms of diversity and geography, and levels of business as well. It’s often much easier to bring together a diverse team of collaborators via video than it is in person.

I think we’ll definitely be using video conferencing still for a long time, due in large part to that ease of global connection. It also adds to our company-wide – and industry-wide - efforts to reduce our travel-related carbon footprint.

On the subject of travel: I find it’s freeing to have the ability to make both in-person and online connections with customers. Meeting with customers in Saudi Arabia, for example, on one particular day, I had three in-person meetings, interspersed with video and phone calls, and I was also able to accept a lunch invitation to enjoy the local culture and hospitality with my hosts thanks to the efficiency and accessibility of having both remote and in-person meetings.

In one day, I was able to appreciate the benefits of each style of meeting. I realized that I don’t want to give up any of them in the future. The future of work is flexible, hybrid, work-from-anywhere - and everything that comes with that, especially when it comes to communication.

Adapting to different styles of communication

There’s a flexibility in making the most of all the different ways that businesses can communicate, both between employees, and with customers and partners.

We have so many different ways to communicate. Flexibility has become a watchword of the future of work, and how people want to live their lives. Put these two things together, and it just makes sense to be willing and able to make use of any and all communication methods that you may want or need to use in order to help your customer and employee relationships flourish.

I’ve mostly written about meeting in person and video conferences in this article, but I want to take a moment to talk about the phone as well, as it brings up an interesting perspective.

I know a lot of people who have been in the workforce as long as I have, particularly, enjoy phone calls.

My experiences in reverse mentoring and casual chat with more junior colleagues, however, have highlighted other perspectives. I don’t know if it’s generational, cultural or personal, but some interpret phone calls as disruptive, even disrespectful of one’s time; they may associate them with emergencies, and therefore panic when the phone rings.

As I wrote in my article in reverse mentoring, many people I work with and many of my customers are younger than me. Being part of a global organization like Lenovo, we work with customers in dozens of time zones, and hundreds of cultures and diverse understandings of the world.

I never want my phone calls to panic or disrupt anyone. That means this is something I have to keep in mind when I’m communicating with someone new.

There may be a reason why certain people never respond to voicemails or emails, but will get back to you immediately if you text or direct?message them. There may be a reason why some people - myself included! - find video phone calls strange and uncomfortable.

It’s important for me - for all of us - to recognize the different ways that our colleagues, customers, and partners communicate, and interpret communication methods. It’s important for all of us to understand and adapt to each others’ styles, and aim to communicate at our best: clearly, comfortably, with trust and respect.

When you’re building a relationship with someone, whether a colleague or a customer, it’s important to understand which communication methods they prefer. It may take time to adapt and take full advantage of all these different types of communication, but it’s well worth it in the end.

That’s why I will always remain open to meeting people in-person, online, on the phone, in the Metaverse, in a coffee shop or restaurant, or wherever suits us best for the conversation we need to have. With communication as my goal, my toolbox is broader than ever.