Does it really need to be online? Finding togetherness in a time of disconnection

Whilst of course, there are lots of benefits to the age of technology we now find ourselves in

I'm a true believer that our world would be better, and our teams and communities would be healthier and happier

If we just chose to switch off and 'detox' ourselves of our tech, a little more often.

I don't choose to hold my opinions back when it comes to team connections and relationships and the desperate need for us to re-connect with our human selves.

As someone who facilitates teams that might be feeling tensions and conflicts in their teams.

I can see how our technology, for all its perks and efficiencies, leads to destructive communication

To really cultivate quality team relationships, which of course are essential in any business, overall functionality and impact. You'll actually need to work even harder than before at keeping our connections.

I could easily find myself in a rant about how constant accessibility via platforms like Teams and slack doesn't come close to a human-connected and natural relationship that might have occurred in the office.

Nor will this level of 'all the time switched on' help reduce stress and over-whelm in team members (even positive team relationships need boundaries to help people preserve energy and recue spikes in hormones like cortisol that might be caused when your team chat gets carried away and you find yourself under pressure to deliver with limited time and energy or distracted by something that isn't really yours to do!)

Since Covid, clients that seek out career coaching or stress management have increasingly cited team relationships or a feeling of disconnected over-whelm (read also isolation and 'showing face' in the midst of less connected relationships)

The teams that join me in the woods, ALWAYS comment on how important the time together as ACTUAL HUMANS has been. And how much deeper conversations have happened in Nature.

Even those who experience anxiety or other health conditions, with the right support to help plan and prepare. Value this time.

In conflict and tense dynamics people behaviour very differently face to face.

Just last year, I worked with a number of organisations facing ' team dynamic' challenges.

If you'd reviewed their issues and compared this with the interactions that played out in person

Its hard to believe that any of them belong to the same teams.

Yes, I know I am there to facilitate and support their challenges.

Yet it is very clear that away from the screens we become reconnected, and that means we improve our communication too.

So my invitation, as a leader or team member.

Meet yourself with curiosity and consider.

Does it need to be online?

Could you encourage team members to meet up more often?

By incorporating this with time in Nature you'll also support them with expanding well-being benefits.

Reducing cortisol, adding movement to perhaps an otherwise fairly stagnant day

With the attention restoration of a break from screens and time spent immersed indoors. You help teams activate creative and problem-solving arenas and chemicals in their brains.

Walking side by side to explore tricky issues can reduce our 'anamalistic' responses to perceived confrontation and conflict; a face-to-face interaction might provoke. So challenges can be discussed calmly and openly (even if we are passionate about the issue!)

I even work with leaders - too far to connect with each other regularly face to face, who will carry out walk and talk meetings where each member of the team has the opportunity to go for a walk while chatting, without their camera on.

Many clients say this 'non-video' agreement feels more deeply connected and has less room for misinterpretation than in a meeting where people turn their camera off.

With people sharing how they'll share their surroundings and observations as they walk, feeling a sense of connection they just might not have forged otherwise.

In one-to-one coaching sessions, the employees and individuals I coach alongside also love to explore this curious question.

Mixing up tasks, focus and intentions in the day. To bring a little more wild and free creativity and exuberance into a working day.

From bringing plants into a home office space to taking reflective time and notes on an afternoon walk. From coming along to a wild workspaces event with Where the Mind Grows or going out to Nature and observing answers and ideas to challenges, using principles of biomimicry. (The practice of design and learning directly from nature's own approaches)

People report being less alone, more energised to connect and feeling more purposeful in their working day.

So that invite again

Be curious and ask?

How can we connect?

How do we deepen relationships in our team?

Does it really need to be online?

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