Remote Working - Are watercooler conversations dead?

Are watercooler conversations dead? How to reconnect with your peers while working remotely.

?Off late I've started working from the office occasionally and I recently attended one gathering with colleagues to mark year-end and met many of my colleagues face to face after years. My humble submission is that there is a huge amount of energy at work when we work collaboratively in physical space together and the virtual environment will not be able to match. There is so much that gets discussed beyond immediate work when we work in the office, be it understanding the strategy of another department, viewpoints from other leaders, or doing a one-one session.

Coffee Machine, Water Cooler, Pantry conversation or most common banter with colleagues after lunch or in the evening over drinks with colleagues are the power which is difficult to measure and difficult to emulate in the virtual world.

Do you miss the office banter with your colleagues? We all do.....

The reality is that many of us have been working virtually for more than a year. With work from home becoming more of a norm than an exception, the water cooler chatter at the office seems to be lost. However, this doesn't mean that you've lost touch with your peers.

?It has merely moved channels and domains - from the break room to social media, slack channels, and email threads. The evolving nature of work demands us to adapt to the new ways of socializing while keeping a strong connection.?

?Cred's "meme" slack channel is the perfect example here. The founder, Kunal Shah has shared screenshots of the fun conversations on the memes channel several times on his Twitter. The team creates fun memes around related topics and even on Kunal Shah himself. Now that's one way you digitize watercooler conversations :)

?For leaders, it is more important than ever to find these channels and make sure they build a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration, care, and, more importantly, fun.

?The secret here is your ability to balance these channels. More importantly, it's about your ability to see the big picture and steer the ship towards healthy collaboration.

The team that laughs or cries together...stays together.

?How are you fostering water cooler conversations?