Are you getting a little bit tired of the virtual happy hours where everyone shows up sitting in their usual environments? And the only differences are they have a drink and they aren’t talking as much about work? I am too.
While the intent is good, these happy hours have turned into a bit of a contrived experience.
It’s important to get together with our colleagues remotely, but it’s more important that we get to share things about ourselves so we can have stronger relationships. I’ve wondered, what do my colleagues see when they walk out their door into their local community? I’m curious and wondered, are they curious, too?
Try Something New
We recently did something different. I scheduled an hour with my direct reports early on a Friday afternoon. On the agenda there was only one rule: no talking about work.
Even before the meeting happened some responded to the invite saying that they loved this idea. To prepare for this event, I asked them to charge their phone and headphones so they could attend the meeting from anywhere.
What happened next was super fun. My team is located all around the country. We ended up having a virtual tour of all the cities that everybody lives in. I have two colleagues in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Marin County, one in the Boston area and two of us are in Denver. That day we got to see a little bit of those places. But we also got to share a little bit of our own lives in a way that was more about what we see versus what we have around us or what our homes look like. We got to see what each teammate sees when they walk out into their neighborhoods.
On the east coast one person went to the rooftop deck of his building. We could see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another colleague in New York walked through the streets of Manhattan for 45 minutes. It was a live feed of this vibrant city in her background as she navigated her way to a plant store to place an order for her new midtown apartment.
In the Boston area our colleague lives very close to Harvard square, so we got to see a little bit of New England and the world that she sees when she walks out her door basically on the Harvard campus.
In Denver I got to see the neighborhood of our colleague who lives about 30 minutes away from me. He shared the open space behind their home. A splash of nature in the middle of town. For my turn I walked to a park about a mile away and took my dog. Good chance to multi-task, right? I shared a view of Cranmer park (or Sundial park) in Denver which is known as the highest point in the city of Denver. When there aren’t clouds this is one of the best views of the Rocky Mountains.
Then we headed to the west coast. One colleague showed us a bit of San Francisco in Lower Haight. With her we walked through the streets of San Francisco to a nearby park. We also got to see her garage turned local bar, a fun and creative COVID project
Next we headed across the bridge to Marin County, the sunny and warmer side of the Bay Area and a different vibe just outside of San Francisco.
The Outcome
The fun part about this is that we got to know each other a little bit better even though we were still all virtual and remote. We got to see a little bit of our colleagues’ worlds and what they see when they navigate their neighborhoods in this tour across the country. This was a fun way to kick off the weekend.
We spend so much time in meetings but it’s really worth taking the time to step back and learn about each other by seeing what they see. At the end of the day we are people, we communicate, and we matter. And the thing we happen to have in common is work. Doing something like this celebrates the uniqueness we each bring from our worlds to that common place we call work.
Give this a try. It’s interesting and fun to see each other’s surroundings from so many different places. And it helps us get up and away from our computers, something we all need to do more.
