It’s Not Going Away
If there’s one thing that’s facilitated our ability to keep functioning (as normally as possible) over the last year and half (Outside of the vaccine and the healthcare community), it has be technology.
From e-commerce to productivity tools, technology has helped keep us working, playing, consuming and communicating when physical interaction was minimal to non-existent.
We ordered our food, clothes and groceries online and had them delivered (contactless). We worked from our homes but stayed connected using video-conferencing and the like. We even had virtual get-togethers with friends when we couldn’t go over to each other’s houses or cities, just to stay connected.
It’s helped a lot, no question, but it’s still not the same thing as engaging in person.
We intuitively get that when it comes to our personal lives - we’re all yearning to go back to normal social gatherings, to travel or to just sit in a coffee shop without concern for whether we have a mask or how closely we sit near someone.
But for some reason, many of us think that the virtual life is here to stay when it comes to our work.
I keep reading about how sales is now all online so we just don’t need to travel as much anymore. That we can all live in different cities and just don’t need to meet as a team more regularly than, perhaps, once a quarter. Or, of course, the perennial favorite: that Work From Home will be forever.
Sorry, I’m not there.
I do think things have materially changed and we’ll see more of all of that (relatively). But the fact remains that we’re social creatures. Our very existence is based on connection.
Through connection, we build deep working relationships. Through connections, we get the edge on a sale. Through connections, we inspire loyalty and trust.
Right now, we may not be perceiving of this as strongly because most of us are still operating on the residual trust we’ve built with our colleagues and clients since pre-pandemic. In addition, pretty much all of us are playing by the same rules - minimal to no travel, heavy WFH, etc.
Over time, though, this will change. The salesperson who got on the plane and went to physically meet with that C-level prospect (even in a coffee shop) will always (all things being equal) have an edge over the one who didn’t. The team that’s been able to physically meet in a single space, argue and debate in person, and break bread together, will always bond more strongly than the one that hasn’t.
Technology will do many things for us, but it won’t replace our humanity. It will simply give us a proxy of sorts - and an imperfect one at that. It will give us the sense of connection but without the emotional investment and commitment that comes with physical interaction.
We’d do well to remember that.
