Connecting in the Digital Office

December 3, 2021 Seth Godin

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​​​Seth Godin,the American Author and former Dot com business executive talks about some interesting facts on Virtual office and how to make it more meaningful.

He starts of by quoting the typical virtual office sceptic who would say, “we can’t go fully remote, because the serendipity of personal connection is too important.” He states that the theory goes that watercooler conversations and elevator encounters add up to an emotional bond. Add to that the happy coincidence of overhearing a conversation where you have something to add or seeing something on a colleague’s screen, and the case is made for bringing people back to a building.

But Seth opines that what it overlooks is that in any building with more space we would only bump into a tiny fraction of people who work there. He goes on to state that if the people in the company work on another floor, or across the street, they might as well be in another country for all the serendipity that happens.

Seth states that the real challenge of remote work isn’t that it somehow erases the mysterious serendipity of magical office collisions. The problem he underscores is that making connections digitally requires enrolment and effort. “If we do it with intent, it actually works better.” he opines.

Let us see how below with some examples given by Seth:

And he says we still can deliberately take five minutes off to have a one-on-one conversation with someone at work about nothing in particular.

But Seth also points out that the real in-person connections didn’t work for everyone in the same way. They often reinforced status roles and privilege. They were unevenly distributed and didn’t usually appear when we needed them. All of which added up to a new layer of stress for many people.

So, Seth concludes that with more concerted effort we would be able to share more and make the virtual office feel better.