The Power of Proximity: Why Team Meet-Ups are Essential for Remote Workers
I hear it all the time:
“You’re so lucky you get to work from home.”
And in all honesty, I do consider myself pretty lucky. I don’t need to race out the door to beat morning traffic, or have to deal with workplace distractions. For the most part, I can plan my day at my leisure (as long as I’m getting work done), and have plenty of time to myself.
But for all the perks that come with working remotely, there are a few things I miss out on not having to clock-in at an office every day—namely, spending time with the people I work with.
There is a lot we can learn from proximity.
We learn a great deal from our environment—and even more from the people within them.
Being physically close to the people you work with is hugely beneficial for these 3 reasons:
#1: Proximity promotes better learning.
Learning on your own is a hell of a lot different than learning in a group.
Everyone has a unique learning style. We know what approach works best for us personally and, when learning something new, tap into whatever resources we need to absorb information as quickly as possible. When we have a confident understanding of the topic at hand, we say we’ve “learned” it.
But realizing everyone has a different approach to learning, different resources to tap into, different methods of comprehension, you start to question if your approach to the topic at hand was really enough to get a full understanding of it.
A few years back, I thought I had nearly perfected Internet-style writing. I studied publications like Forbes and TIME, read through as much content as possible on a variety of topics, studied the writing style writers typically used and tried to emanate those characteristics in my writing. To my knowledge, that was the best way to learn how to write.
Working alongside Nicolas Cole—one of the most popular writers on the Internet—I was introduced to new methods of writing-related learning. From our first meeting, I watched as Cole took an approach entirely different from mine, looking inward instead of out to create his content—something I never would have thought to do on my own.
Being in the same physical space with other people allows you to pick up on new methods of learning crucial for personal growth.
#2: Proximity promotes collaboration.
People like to argue this point because of how connected we are in the Digital Age.
My colleague Jacob and I recently traveled to Atlanta to meet up with the co-founders of the company we work for. The point of the trip was talk about customer pain-points and improve our business development processes.
Nearly everything we talked about from a business standpoint could have been discussed over the phone, but we never would have been able to come up with some of the ideas we did in-person—ideas that were a direct result of being in the same room.
When working remotely, any questions you have need to be asked via messenger. If whoever your asking is busy, you need to wait for an answer. And by the time you get a response, you may have forgotten exactly why you were asking in the first place.
Even if you set up a phone call or video chat and write down your questions you plan to ask, by the time you and your colleagues actually get on the line, your questions may have completely lost context. Any virtual meeting you organize has a time limit and was organized for a specific purpose—there isn’t any room for free-flowing conversations that often lead to big ideas.
If you can, work with a colleague in person to maximize collaboration.
#3: Proximity promotes chemistry.
The easiest way to breed team chemistry is through proximity.
By sharing the same physical space, you’re able to develop a better understanding of who you work with, what their interests are and how they collaborate within a group—something you can’t always get working remotely.
This isn’t to knock remote companies or remote workers—far from it, actually. If you don’t have the opportunity to physically hang-out with your coworkers, that’s out of your hands. But if a colleague is traveling to your city, or your team wants to plan a weekend retreat, it would be extremely advantageous to meet them in person. Even if you have to go out of your way to make it work, I’d highly recommend doing so.
As much as you can, meet up with co-workers—even clients, if possible—to develop better chemistry and increase overall success.
