Staying Socially Connected While You Physically Distance
Governments, companies, medical professionals, and other experts are directing us to ‘social distance’ ourselves to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as you may have heard by now, we’ve got the vocabulary wrong. We need to ‘physically distance’ ourselves.
Now more than ever, we NEED social connection, intimacy, communities, and togetherness. Virtually everyone who is sheltered at home is feeling more disconnected and less social.
And there is no way to completely reverse that.
But it’s amazing how far we can go to create connections remotely.
1. Formalize casual contact. Use your multiple forms of mobile chat like you have never used them before. ‘Bumping into’ a family member, friend, or co-worker via WhatsApp, WeChat, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, or all the other channels has never been so easy. Make a point of flipping through your contact lists to create informal contacts. This will open up the ‘hallway conversations’ that can unlock news you need to know and connections you need to sustain.
2. Meet a little more with your teams. They’re feeling as disconnected as you are, so create more forums to connect and chat. If you had a staff meeting, add another meeting on another topic, or two, every week. They’ll do the same with their teams. Look for excuses to meet briefly and informally instead of what you might have done before.
3. Use Video. It’s remarkable how much video creates the feeling of closeness, intimacy, ‘social life.’ Audio just doesn’t compare. By phone, by tablet, by PC or Mac, by whatever form, but definitely move to video as much as possible. Laugh about the appearance of special guest stars like your kids, pets, and spouses. It’s bring your child or bring your dog to work EVERY day now.
If you have other ideas for how to ‘not’ socially distance and actually become socially present while ‘physically distancing,’ please let me and others know in the comments below. We’re all in this together (apart).
Account Executive, Large Enterprise at SAP
4 年Video is key! I was reluctant to use it in the past but now find calls turn to Facetime all the time now. My tip would be to reach out to friends and colleagues you haven't caught up with in a long time. If a memory of them comes to you, pick up the phone and call or text! You never know who needs the social connection. Lastly, smile and wave to everyone in the neighborhood - 6 feet apart of course!
Strategic Growth Architect I Passionate People Leader I Scaled both large & small businesses over 10X in revenue multiple times
4 年Great perspective, coaching and leadership Bracken Darrell !! I definitely agree the widely accepted terminology “social distancing” may not have been the best choice. I love your encouragement! - leadership is key right now. Still would love to connect.
Executive Leader, Quality, Engineering, High Tech, Building Highly Successful Teams, Record Breaking Results
4 年Super way to put it Bracken. We can enrich our ways of socializing without being physically together. My team and I have started working with our spatial computing device and applications while at our homes. You can see a quick video capture which shows us socializing in my guest room rather than on a 2D screen. It's just the beginning, but still really cool to experience! https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/carl-risen-8aa62419_magicleap-spatialcomputing-activity-6652995302548660226-GOTT
We Help Tech CEOs Launch Books That Position Them as Thought Leaders and Build Their Personal Brand - WITHOUT Lifting a Finger
4 年Smart play on words.
Operations Optimization Specialist at Energy Network/The EN Group, Account Manager MedNetwork
4 年My wife and her friends have began to use Zoom video meeting er Happy Hours to keep connected.