The Loss of the "After-Meeting"

The online meeting is a challenge to me. Much like how I prefer face-to-face lessons as opposed to online classes, I don’t connect as well online in meetings as opposed to face to face ones. It’s the interaction that carries the meaningfulness of the topic, and the emotions of the individuals. It builds synergies and creates momentum that, in my experience, is difficult to generate through video or phone conferences. Body language is hidden, and like a text it's hard to interpret how someone is really feeling.

For me, online conferencing is only useful for handling day to day business. Yes, you can have your sales call, your materials meeting, your capacity planning. But can you have your leadership meetings? Your quarterly planning sessions? Brainstorming sessions are much less impactful when I write on my tiny screen vs. a giant whiteboard. What if you’re the kind of person that thinks best while walking around the room? 

Then there’s the “talking over” each other that happens.

“Oh, sorry, you go”

“No, sorry, what were you going to say?”

Not to mention technical difficulties – “Ed, your video is frozen. Are you still there?”

Something that is both a blessing and a curse is the meeting that happens after the meeting (you know, the “after-meeting”). All the things that people talk about after having a group meeting, some of which can be beneficial. These things only happen when people are discussing a topic in more detail than they did in the meeting. They can come up with new ideas, think of more exceptions, and generally become aware of additional questions that need to be answered before moving forward on a project. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of waste in these after-meetings as well. My point is that connection is not happening.

But now, in the world of online meetings and working from home, that doesn’t happen. The meeting itself is a distraction from your physical space, and the other things you need to do. Most often I bet people just go back to what they were doing before the meeting, instead of thinking about what was discussed and what it means. I know I struggle with that. I think it’s just human nature to be present where you are, as opposed to thinking about work in a space where you don’t normally work.

I’ve read that some people are saying productivity is way up in some industries where employees are working from home. In manufacturing that’s a little tough because, you know, you have to build stuff. Touching and seeing, feeling and testing are important things that can only be done in person.

I miss sitting across the table from people: co-workers, customers, friends. I know some of this is temporary, and some of this will become the new normal. And hey, I’m flexible. But I have to say that even though this taught me how to use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and the zillion other online meeting forums, the elephant in the room is the loss of human connection in terms of generating happiness, synergy and progress. In other words, there is a kind of electricity generated in face to face connection that cannot pass through the wires of the internet. I'm looking forward to recharging...