Virtual Innovation
As we emerge from our COVID shell, here are some workplace innovations worthy of continued use.
In the kerfuffle and smash of returning to the office, I took an informal poll of virtual workplace innovations that have really hit the mark. Here are three wondrous inventions that we should hybridize into our regular routines, whether we stay home or go back — or both.
Virtual conferences
In-person conferences are important for trust-building, but coach Meg Buzzi of Rah Rah Rah Creative has found that virtual pre-meetings can be critical for establishing relationships necessary for trust-building. She and I have enjoyed using Miro in combination with Zoom to support conversations and projects during and between meetings. The ability to comment in real time, engage people who may be more introverted (preferring to write rather than speak), and create graphical artifacts to move ideas around, have been incredible features that amplify our strategy sessions.
But, move over Zoom — there are some wonderful platforms blossoming out there that support a truly interactive virtual meeting. My kids extol Discord — great sound, excellent group and document sharing functionality. But then I experienced Gather.Town and Spatial.Chat. Wow! Maybe I just like stuff that moves, but the ability to set up an avatar and travel around a customized space was amazing. Really.
Heather Ruland Staines, of DeltaThink, notes that people are more present in these venues — maybe because we are driving our avatars around and not reading our email. She says, “On Zoom, you can only really have one conversation, but in Spatial Chat or GatherTown people can break into groups as they like, as well as move between groups, and the “mingle” environment enables you to introduce someone to another colleague.” These platforms support networking, formation of connections across novice and expert divides, and also enable workshop facilitators to easily move between groups. I particularly enjoyed the ability to choose spaces, whether that was a chair-limited table conversation or an open cluster.
Keith Tse, a colleague at the Ronin Institute, has enjoyed the GatherTown experience for networking, but was really impressed by how well it worked for conference poster sessions. “I got to mount my presentation on a virtual board and had people walking around taking a look at it and asking me questions in small video screens.” As attendee avatars approach your poster, a video and audio interface forms automatically and you can enter into video and text-based chats with the people involved — no more waiting in line as questions are answered sequentially! The chat function also allows you to send links and files. Keith also gave kudos to Wonder.me, a meeting platform that has an additional feature that allows attendees to open a room with a designated link where you can meet up with others and chat with whomever you like.
While some folks may feel silly maneuvering little avatars around spaces that range from 1980s video games to images of real places, others see advantages in the effort. Those with hearing impairments note that they can follow conversations, sometimes with the assistance of headphones or captioning, that would not be possible in crowded reception halls or restaurants. Other folks appreciate an alternative to real world travel that might not be possible due to health or mobility issues. “It’s important, however, that these nascent tools continue to build out their own functionality in accessible ways, including access with assistive devices.” Heather Ruland Staines observed. “One neat podcasting tool (Riverside.fm) was unusable for a professor using an ASL interpreting service, as there was no simple way for the interpreter to phone into the meeting while her video was used for another tool.” Accessibility features for most of these services, are “on the roadmap” but need to be moved to the top of the list.
Work pods
Me, I love working from home, but I have to say the eat-in and take-out options are underwhelming (today, it is mac and cheese with broccoli and baked beans). So, why not work in a pod in a restaurant? This is what Hari Gadiraju is working on, with his PopWork startup. PopWork makes a single-person pod that can be placed in a restaurant or coffee shop, fully outfitted with wifi, office equipment, sound-proofing and filtered air, and tied into a scheduling app. All mere steps to coffee and yummy food.
Not only does PopWork help people who need to work closer to coffee or an appointment across the city, it also brings customers to restaurants currently in dire need of business. In addition to the pods, PopWork is also partnering with restaurants to schedule workspaces at tables during low-traffic times. Several restaurants in his home town of Dallas are subscribed to the service.
Civilized beverage tastings
Heather Flanagan, of Spherical Cow Consulting, has been enjoying virtual round-up meetings with a group of friends from around the world this past year. The virtual setting has afforded a faster cadence, from seeing friends maybe once a year to monthly. This has strengthened friendship bonds immensely. In person, these meetings would have spilled over from a conference to a libation establishment, most of which were closed during COVID. Edward Slingerland argues in his recent book, “Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization” that beverage consumption (in moderation) is linked to creativity and civilization, so this is a problem!
Not to worry — innovation sprang up here too. For those able to venture outside, a local winery near me outfitted a food truck that enabled wine tastings and social distancing. Colleague Laura Paglione, of Spherical Cow Group, turned me on to DIY cocktail boxed sets by Cocktail Courier. Heather’s group explored virtual beverage tastings to mutual merriment with the added benefit of clean bathrooms and no annoying pick-up lines. Among their highly rated experiences were Pine Ridge Virtual Wine Tasting, which sent small bottles of wine and hosted an online event with a wine educator, and Robert Sinsky which sent full-sized bottles of wine and simulated an interactive dinner table experience.
Hybridize
Certainly, humans are social animals. We are not built to work in isolation all the time. COVID was the first time we were asked to do so. A colleague of mine recently told me how she was planning to request a work sabbatical to deal with depression and exhaustion. Then, social distancing regulations were eased and she was able to join her team for a week-long in-person retreat and she found her jam again. At the same time, she has loved the reduced travel schedule of the last year, which can be particularly punishing as she lives in Australia and travels to meetings around the world. With new hybrid workspaces and conferences, she can be with people and travel less.
I believe and hope hybrid workspaces are here to stay. Innovations brought about over the last year show how we can combine virtual meetings, the convenience of home, and the opportunity to work near colleagues. Let’s keep working on improving how we work!
