Unlike every other day, it was my cab driver Lakhaani Saab’s call that woke me up that morning!
Oops, I was 30 mins late, am I going to miss the flight? As usual, it was an early morning flight; it was an unusually small aeroplane that day and my entire flight experience felt like being in a KSRTC bus back home!
First thing I looked for after stepping into that little airport building was the omnipresent logo with the smiling ‘twin-tailed siren’.
Wait a minute ! That probably was the first airport in USA I have been to so far, without a Starbucks outlet!
Disappointed, but not ready to give up on not being able to grab the customary ‘White Mocha’ which was the closest drink I could get in this country to the legendary ‘Indian filter-coffee’ — I settled for a black coffee that morning before getting into the cab.
A sleepy little town; known for its health-care contributions to the country, with vintage-looking building layouts and a very laid-back morning welcomed me. What followed was a couple of eventful days at one of my customers’ manufacturing unit — design workshop, user interviews, contextual inquiries and tons of learning; amused by the level of detailed manual work involved in building one of the most sophisticated machines healthcare industry has seen so far! After joining the group for a dinner at a local seafood restaurant, I headed back home with tons of learnings and fun memories…
I should say that majority of my learnings from that trip came not from the design workshops / user research that we conducted, but from the other ‘in-person’ interactions I had for those couple of lovely days!
Fast-forwarding 2 years since then, things have taken a dramatic turn; I don’t have to wake up so early to prepare for a workshop now, no security checks, no fun chats with the cab driver, and of course — no more “ White Mocha “:(
With ‘remote’ becoming the new kid on the block, and all of us playing the catch-up game of weaving success-stories in this new way of getting things done, what are we missing out on these virtual workshops? Will it be ever the same again?
Here is a list of things that I am already missing in a virtual world:
The hand-shakes aka ‘Human connections’
That Ice-breaker session, welcome hand-shakes, nervousness that gives way to excitement — a virtual workshop can never match the ‘live’ factor that an in-person workshop can offer.
The body language / Dialogue game
The exciting part for me as a workshop facilitator always has been the ‘live’ feeling and being able to make emotional connect with my audience. Reading the body language of the group and reacting accordingly has been a great learning process for me. Moderating an engaging debate is another gem of a skill that I have been improvising over time. I miss both today :(
Sticky-notes / Chart-sheet magic
I miss the ‘real’’ sticky-note / chart-sheet combination. To be able to move them around, set up any kind of canvas to drive the group to a meaningful purpose and device innovative ways to bring about a unison to the thoughts of the group was so inspiring and fulfilling. Tools like Miro to an extend have tried to bridge that gap, but it definitely can’t replace the good old pair!
Late evening workshop venue preps
This part has always been a powerhouse of learning for me as a facilitator. Setting up the workshop venue, rehearsing and time-boxing the activities always had me hooked and have never failed to give me something unique to learn out of. I hope to go back to those good old days sooner…
The spark of team-work
I have always loved co-located teams. Having spent the majority of my career growing with teams with closely-knit, like-minded folks, my growth as a creator and design-leader is primarily due to the learning from such groups. Moving to the US has been a turning point with the need to adapt to a remote model. Facilitation role has been a great leveller for me with a chance to work closely with teams and complete strangers purposefully. Remote mode has put a hold to this for the time being :)
The side conversations
Conversations have great potential to open up new windows of learning and opportunities. Workshops conversations, Lunches, Dinners were all great triggers to some interesting threads for me. There were instances of new business opportunities coming up from those conversations occasionally as well. With tools like Miro transforming a workshop into an ultra-focused activity, conversations like those are surely being missed!
Snacks :)
Do I even need to explain this :D
Starbucks, shrimps and sticky-notes was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.