In the age of Zoom, it might seem like a poor use of time to make a 1 hour trip for a 15 minute meeting. When you calculate both directions plus transition time, it’s over 2 hours.
Surely, a Zoom or even a phone call would be more efficient.
Perhaps.
But it would not necessarily be more effective.
When you want to get to know someone and create a meaningful connection, there’s no substitute for face-to-face or “belly-to-belly,” as a colleague likes to describe it.
3 Reasons to Meet Face-to-Face
Here are 3 reasons to make the effort to meet in person.
(1) Communication Beyond Words
Effective communication is more than about the words we use or our tone of voice. We also communicate with body language, subtle movements, and our overall energy.
A video call shows you only what’s above the shoulders — it’s a head-game. It can be useful for transmitting information, doing a brief check-in, or for mundane administrative meetings. (Although, question whether that information would be more effectively conveyed in an email or a shared document.)
If you want a sense of what a person is about, there’s no substitute for meeting in person.
Some people are naturally expressive with their bodies when they speak — gesticulating with their hands, or moving their feet. On video, we often temper our “above the fold” movements like hand gestures to avoid being distracting; other subtle movements are out of the view of the camera.
In-person conversations free us to use our whole body in the way that is more natural to us, allowing us to communicate beyond our words.
(2) Build Rapport Faster
Sometimes “rational-minded” productivity seekers write off intangibles like “energy.” But before you dismiss this as “woo,” consider how you feel when you’re in the presence of certain people.
Some people are magnetic — they seem to command attention even before they’ve uttered a word. There are people who you just want to be around, even if you don’t yet know them well.
A video conference shows you a person only from above the shoulders, as if all that matters is the ideas in their head. But we bring our whole selves to our work. This is true even in “knowledge work” fields, but it’s especially relevant in client-service fields.
When you meet with someone in person, you get to see how they carry their energy into a room, how they move through a space, and how they hold themselves. You will get a better read on their confidence and where they might be holding back.
You can feel their magnetism and the other intangibles that they bring. We see others more completely.
And we can be seen more fully — giving us the ability to make a bigger impact.
There is a natural energy that flows between any two people in conversation, which is essential for creating rapport and cultivating trust.
The most effective conversations occur when we remove barriers to that energy flow. This obviously includes screens, but it also includes objects such as desks or tables.
(3) Open Doors to the Unexpected
When we meet on video or by phone, we tend to stick more closely to an agenda. In our push for efficiency we often eliminate the small talk. But the small talk often is the magic key that opens a door to unexpected possibilities.
Sometimes the small off-topic tidbits ignite a spark of ideas that you may not have previously considered.
No Substitute for In-Person Energy
Part of the philosophy of Holistic Productivity is to think beyond the typical constraints of time exchanges.
There’s no substitute for in-person conversations. A 15 minute in-person meeting can be more effective and more constructive than hours on a Zoom — making the time spent commuting a rational trade-off.
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