With the Covid-19 Crisis in full swing, many offices and workplaces made the mass shift to remote work. Working from home has many benefits (including the remoteness from others in a time of contagious virus), but takes practice, and lacks many of the productive subtleties of the in-person workplace. Many didn’t realize they’d miss these small moments and perks of being in a formal office setting until they had to cope with no longer having them. One of those is the 30 second walk-by meeting.
Picture yourself in your pre-Covid workspace. Perhaps you sit in a cubicle, an open desk, or in an office. You’re working on a project and have a question for your colleague about information that will help you complete the task at hand. Luckily, at some point during the day, your co-worker will walk by and you can pull them aside for a quick, 30-second or couple minute conversation. You can have your project in front of you with both pairs of eyes looking at the same thing. Within a short dialogue, perhaps with some pointing at a document or computer screen for understanding, you ask your question, you get your answer, and you’re able to move on with your project.
Under remote work conditions, the walk-by meeting no longer exists. If you have a quick question, you may find yourself at a loss of just how to ask it. If your question has complexities that would require a visual aid while talking with your coworker, you no longer have the convenience of looking at the same paper or computer screen.
How can you use technology to overcome the loss of the 30 second walk-by meeting?
Function with Intention
Just as when you’re in the office, practicing intention of speech is of paramount importance in the remote workspace. Time with others in calls or meetings is limited, and you must use that time wisely. You don’t want to sign out of an online meeting to realize you didn’t get an answer to one of your questions. Functioning well from a remote office means learning to use intention in every task throughout the day.
Make a List
One of the ways to train yourself to use intention in meetings and calls is to make a list of every single thing you hope to accomplish during your time with your coworkers, team, or superiors. Writing out a list has many benefits, and can help you understand what your goals are for each meeting. Thinking through these conversations ahead of time can also shake loose questions that would be helpful to ask during the meeting, instead of thinking of them afterward.
Pick Up the Phone
Of course, no one can anticipate everything 100% of the time. If you find yourself with an urgent question that’s holding up your project, pick up the phone and have a conversation with a real person instead of exchanging emails over a long chain. It’s faster, more effective, and keeps the spirit of human connection alive with your team members.
Talk Face-to-Face
If a phone call isn’t cutting it, talk face-to-face. We all have incredible technology at our fingertips, most of which is free or very cost-effective. Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Facetime, and many others allow you to have a face-to-face conversation, pick up on social cues during your talk, and even share your screen so both people can be looking at the same materials on screen. Even though it’s over the internet and not in person, talking face-to-face with coworkers is a giant leap forward from a phone call when it comes to body language and other non-verbal cues like eye contact.