Face to Face Still Rules- Tell Your Boss and the Bean Counters

Teams working apart from each other is a fact of life for most of us. But just because a team can function apart from each other, doesn't mean you shouldn't make a periodic attempt to get people together. This is news to many of the people who hold our budgets. Tell the bean counters to get over it and let you meet once in a while.

Why do you want to spend the money when you can just webinar/conference call/email each other to your heart's content? The answer is simple: because people communicate better through technology with people they know, like and trust. How can you get them to know like and trust each other if they never meet each other?

Even though your gut and common sense tell you this is true, they seldom carry much weight with the folks putting together the budget. You'll probably need research to back you up. That's where research from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration will help. In "The Future of Meetings- The Case for Face to Face", the authors make several points that are important to team effectiveness but don't fit neatly into line items on a spread sheet.

Admittedly, the study was funded by the hospitality industry, who has a vested interest in getting people to rent hotel conference rooms. My experience is that it's the act of coming together, not the quality of the location that helps a team bond. (It doesn't have to be the Four Seasons or a great location. Frankly if I never see Orlando again I'll survive quite nicely.

Here's some of the reasons to meet in person:

• Human beings bond when they can really see each other. Your team has to trust each other and be willing to reach out in order to facilitate communication, solve problems and get stuff done without sucking their manager into it. The ancient human rites of sharing a meal, shaking hands and seeing each other first thing in the morning after a night of "late meetings" help create an environment where communication happens. Secrets are hard to keep once you've seen each other around the pool.
• Just being virtual means you pay less attention. While virtual meetings do allow information to flow, the very fact that the information is coming through a video or computer screen means we process information differently. Our brains treat the information as if it's on television, and we process information as if it's a TV show, not as if it's a real event with real people.
• Casual conversations have long-term benefits. When you schedule to attend a phone or web meeting, you generally want to focus on the topic at hand, remove distractions and get done so you can get back to your "real" work. One of the benefits of being together physically are the unscheduled, casual conversations. When you bump into each other at the doughnuts you have the "oh,do you know Bob in Ohio?" conversations. A lot of valuable conversation starts with "oh by the way"... Those conversations happy by accident, not with planning.

Read more:

• Negotiate when you're not eye to eye: is it even possible?
• 4 Reasons managers need to commit to one on ones
• Is video conferencing just like being there?