How much time, money and planetary resources should we be spending on coming together to work in the same place, given that we’ve discovered so many great ways of collaborating remotely?
In this blog post I share a simple checklist to help you answer this question… and then complicate things with some additional considerations.
If you’re thinking of getting together, start by gathering the data to complete this checklist:
- How much extra time will it take, for everybody, and how useful and/or pleasant is that extra time? What else could you be doing, for yourself, your organisation or your loved ones?
- Travel costs. How much, in money, for everybody. Include subsistence and accommodation
- Environmental costs. How much will the gathering cost our planet? And, how much do you care? Are you actually going to prioritise the environment over quality of work, or over money?
- What do you, and others, get in return for all of these costs and opportunity costs? (And how much of that could really happen by getting better at remote working?)
- Whose preferences matter the most? Yours? Your boss’s? A donor or sponsor, a client? Be honest.
- Other than the time/cash/carbon question, what else is less good in person? (Inclusion and diversity, and collaborative brainstorming, for example, are both demonstrably better online.)
There are a few dimensions here. But if you know and practice your values and priorities, this is just complicated, not complex.
Start with what you can understand and work out.
Costs are calculable. Just make sure you factor in the human costs which may be hidden from you, and the opportunity costs. Done that? Big number huh? Amazing how much we spent on those gatherings in the past, then won’t give a colleague a decent camera for their laptop, or invest in good connectivity.
Now, the benefits. If you believe, and we do, that you can create amazing relationships online, and a more equal and open opportunity environment, and be creative…what is the upside? There is one, and it contains some magic too.
We are more used to it, we have evolved as sociable and proximate beings – we are good at collaborating, learning, creating and generally sparking off each other in the same space. We can casually share ideas, we can begin new friendships, and relationships. For a lot of us, this is a bonding environment.
And it’s fun…mostly, for most of us, isn’t it? It can be, but let’s not think it is the same for us all.
Not to mention that command and control is a whole lot easier when co-located. The boss can watch. In a low-trust context, getting together is vital.
Both leadership and management are harder when working remotely, and if relationships are poor, harder still. Even when relationships are just OK, not bad, not great, then together time can make a great difference – in either direction!
When usually-distributed teams or collaborators get together to work, for a limited period, it can be a great part of the blended approach to working together. Time spent in the same space can be used to:
- develop informal relationships
- share knowledge
- quickly develop, test and adapt ideas and strategies
- strengthen bonds of understanding, collegiality, purpose
- reduce misunderstandings
- assess and re-calibrate alignment.
As for how often, how much? Well, it’s a balance. Dozens of people on international flights to a hub with hotel costs and all that goes with it, is a big bill. That needs a big benefit. But a few people catching trains for day trips, and sharing a space for a while, that can be both beneficial and come at a reasonable set of costs.
If your get-together is happening because your remote work isn’t working, then something else needs looking at, so give us a call. We can help.
We help people who work apart, work together, better. Mostly online, but sometimes, in the room. Let’s all work better, together.