We have different conversations when we are in a different place

I connect with my colleagues every day. Even though I work from home, I still have a lot of talks with my colleagues throughout each day, via Microsoft Teams. Mostly quick chats, but of course also plenty of video calls.

I’m used to this way of communicating now, and as long as we use Teams moderately, it works fine. It’s just too bad our conversations always take place in the same two virtual places: a video call, or a chat interface. It’s like our virtual office has only two rooms.

Today, a colleague was nice enough to drive to the place I live, so we could meet in person. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for walking, so we walked through a nice open area with no buildings but instead we were surrounded by grass, water, trees and birds, while we discussed many different things. After our walk we continued our talk over lunch, in a pancake restaurant. These two places couldn’t be more different than those two ‘rooms’ in Teams.

It makes me wonder to what extent our conversations are not just shaped by the people we talk to, or by the topics we discuss, but also by the spaces in which our conversations take place. I don’t think I would have had the same relaxed, open and creative talk with my colleague if we had been in a video call.

Remote working will not go away, and I embrace its many benefits. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could have more than just two types of virtual rooms for our talks?

Until then, I’m going to plan more walk and talks with my colleagues. If they are reading this: who likes pancakes?