Being used to using video conferences and working from remote made it easier to connect with a world switching to remote work.
As the dust of the change settles we start to see how much learning will be necessary to become effective. Some of the questions will require to figure out what type of work can be done remotely, others will be to learn how to transform our work to be able to create a fluid online experience, and yet others will help see what the in presence situation added to the quality of work being done.
Right now, it is rare to have a day without a video conference.
It’s a treat to have them as they do help to stay connected with co-workers. They ease doing work together when no other possibility is available. At the same time, they structure the day, require to be scheduled, happen when they are scheduled and usually will last at least as long as planned.
We take the time needed to connect, exchange one or the other detail to update one another before being to start the work. It’s way more than what we’ll take the time for when working in the same office.
As the meetings pass by, we notice that there is no transition from one to the other. The short walk from one office to the other, the drive to mee the client, they all are missing. We sit in the same chair, in front of the same device and let one meeting after the other pass by. The days resemble one another. Time feels to be faster than ever. Rare are the events interrupting this flow and helping us see the time that passed.
We might be thinking about different projects and activities, but as the meetings pass by one after the other we start to realize that we are managing more than creating.
Carving time out to do creative or strategic work requires the discipline of seeing that need and leaning in. It also requires to fend off those connections that come in, just because everyone is assumed to be at home and available to connect. Where we would have been in another place or doing a different activity we are now an oddity if we are not available within the next few hours.
It all helps us and sometimes requires us to decide what we stand for and become very clear about what it is, that we want to achieve. At least if we don’t want to become the cog in the system.
It’s hard work. It demands more emotional labor than anything we’ve known until now.
There is a gap between possible and professional.
