![]() ![]() One of my colleagues volunteered to be my proxy, and it was nice to know that I had a direct line into the room. I had to be abroad for a family emergency and it meant missing a very important meeting. I did it once when I was working at Techstars. You can call it a proxy, or you can call it an advocate. They can also repeat things that the person who is remote might not hear or suggest context that they might not be picking up by not being in the room. The proxy can interject and speak up for the person who’s remoting in so that they also get a chance to speak. Any backchannel will work, slack, text, speech to text, it’s best to let the person remote choose which communication channel is easiest. That person has no role in the meeting other than to represent a person who isn’t there physically, and they do that by having a direct line of communication to the person who is remote. When only one person is remote and the rest of the team is in person, the best practice is to have a proxy for that person in the room. Our choices are to all be remote or if we want to do in person meetings, to take a hybrid approach. Making an offsite inclusive for him is more work, and it’s worth it. It means he will probably always be remote. He’s brilliant and a founder and he should definitely be included, but he definitely has limitations that make remote a better option. One of my colleagues in the company I was working with today has a medical condition that causes fatigue and sometimes makes sitting or even typing impossible. Could be health reasons, difficulty traveling or physical challenges sitting for long periods or any other reason that makes an in-person long day difficult. But there are other reasons why in-person can be hard for some people, even without Covid. Remote meetings are also easier to coordinate with fewer logistics, a tiny carbon footprint by comparison and without the same burdens on families. During Covid, we’ve adapted some ways of working better than others, personally, I like collaborative whiteboards like Mural and Miro as an alternative to a lot of sticky notes, which have their place, but feels wasteful at the end when you recycle them all. All the things that come with being remote are shared. When everyone is remote, everyone has to sign in, make zoom work, find a quiet places to work, show of their office/living room/dog, etc. ![]() After fully in-person, fully remote is the next best alternative because everyone is equal. The value of sharing a meal can’t be underestimated for bonding potential.īut circumstances taught everyone in the last two years that a lot more was possible remote than we thought. Another big advantage of in-person meetings is the potential to break bread together. There’s also the psychological reinforcement of closeness when you can be in the same room as your colleagues (assuming everyone feels safe). There are so many verbal and non-verbal cues that you get in-person they don’t translate remotely. I’m not talking about “hanging around the hoop”, I’m talking about everyone in the conference room or other group space doing collaborative work. When given the choice, in-person is always best for bringing a group together.
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