Having allowed work to take a back seat since late Feb, today marked the return of doing things for money.
I’d missed it.
What I hadn’t considered was that, despite working predominantly on digital products and services, most of my work takes place with groups of people, in a physical space.
Not any more.
Things take a lot longer to do when you’re using a a combination of video conferencing and other online tools.
I knew that.
However, I hadn’t bargained for the inability for others to effect your thinking by moving something.
Now they have to articulate what they want to physically move.
Collaboration tools help, but so many are locked down from corporate environments.
Google Slides seems best for early thinking, which I didn’t think it would be.
The biggest takeaway I took from today was the need for breaks.
To go away, think about things in isolation and come back together to discuss the reflections.
These things happen as a matter of course in a physical space, as no one notices quite as much if you zone out, or if someone nips for a bathroom break or to grab coffee for the team, or simply to get away from the space itself so they can see it afresh.
Working online will never be a substitute for working together, in person.
Working is not different, really, it’s the time it takes that is extending.
I’m not seeing much of that in the “How we’ve cracked remote working” articles, yet it’s possibly the most important thing to call out.
Slowing down is the new speeding up.
Or it should be if you want to get it right.
And finding a way to day dream while on a video conference without people assuming you’re not listening is my new jam.
Well, it will be when I find some time to test out some ideas.
I’ll come back to that another time.