Face to Face
We bond over the things that we do together. Initiatives that we pursue, insights that we share, software that we develop, conferences we go to, even bugs that we fix, and challenges that we resolve. Together.
Some people refer to this togetherness as to a team spirit. Some people call it collaboration. Either way, call it togetherness, team spirit or collaboration, what we mean by these, likely, would be the energy of genuine interactions and instant understanding, and by “instant” I mean this precious kind of understanding when team mates don’t have to explain motives of their actions to their peers, because they know each other so well, and are so assured of what drives them as a team, that there’s simply no need for explanation.
I recall how I cringed once as I overheard this phrase somewhere: “We’re trying to maximize our face time with them”. This was said about some guys from an off-site location visiting the main office. My first thought was: “So the rest of the time they work is their a** time?” As, obviously, the guys who develop software spend most of their time sitting on their derrieres?? Though, of course, it’s worth a praise that after all they’re still trying to maximize the face time… And, since I know that my cringes usually signal a presence of a false note, as in music (see more on that here), I wanted to dig to the core reason of what seemed odd about this “face time” phrase to me. After some pondering, I realized that what felt out of tune was the speaker’s assumption, which seemed to imply that “maximizing face time” automatically creates this feel of togetherness, or of a team spirit, or of a collaboration.
… and, I’m not really sure where to begin so as to debunk this, should I say, delusion? Or, whether there’s really such a need to debunk anything at all, because those who don’t get it are unlikely to get it? Or, am I just thrown off by “the tech talk” used as a medium to convey the subtlety, unknowableness, non-linearity, and unquantifiability of the energy that drives a human collective in whatever they do?
Speaking of “face time”, what I instantly feel in tune with, is this:
These folks enjoy their moment of togetherness, and that’s it. No one has a wearable gadget on which measures the ratio of how the “face time maximizes” into achieving business goals, or into creating a team spirit.
There are other things which make individuals feel that they are together in what they do, not only “the face time”, be it online or offline. And, there are zillions of articles, posts and discussions which tell stories of how people feel together as a team by working remotely, and by means of async communication. I’ve written on that before as well.
And, I don’t feel like pumping another kool-aid into the tech-style talk of how to facilitate remote collaboration today. I’d rather give another credit, to a colleague, from whom I picked this cool “pump kool-aid” expression :)
Related:
(tech) Leaders, Managers, and Tennis Umpires
Integrity: The Costs of Bitterness
This story is loosely based on an earlier article.
