One Apple A Day #758 - Less random, more intentional
A few days ago, I was talking with a friend about the impact of remote working. Quite a recurring conversation lately.
He shared with me two fascinating observations.
The first thing is the disappearance of the spaces in-between: the corridors, the halls, the stairs, the lift. All those areas that connect working spaces.
The second observation is that remote work has highly reduced the space for random encounters. You know, like when you're going to a meeting and cross a colleague on the corridor, then you exchange a few words and maybe remember something you forgot to do or have an insight for your next meeting.
When working from home, there are no spaces in-between, no random encounters. We go in and out of calls and video-calls. It's a binary thing. You're in the conversation, or you're not.
You must decide to write to someone on a chat; you don't just randomly meet.
The downside of this is the lack of surprises and unexpected moments that can spark new ideas. The upside is that we have to be more intentional in everything we do. We need to choose to connect to someone, and that's an opportunity to explore our intent, our motivation for doing what we do.