Connector Field Notes #11

Sometimes it’s more than okay to just meet virtually

Let's normalize virtual meetings in the same city if that's what makes the most sense. I'm a huge champion of spending social time with people in person whenever possible. I talk a lot about my in-person interactions, running into people out and about, and connecting with friends in other places via phone calls and video chats.

But sometimes, the reality of scheduling and logistics is that the highest fidelity form of communication with someone who may not actually be physically far away from you is to grab a virtual coffee or do a walking phone call. And that's great, too. Nix the travel time, the parking situation, the moving pieces, and get a Zoom link on the calendar.

I recently did this with a founder in the social health space who I’ve chatted with on LinkedIn and via email. We both wanted to meet but we were drowning in logistics. This solved our problem immediately- we had a great conversation and I think we were both relieved to give ourselves permission to just schedule the virtual meeting.

Follow the conversation opportunities

There was one more podcast episode that I meant to include in the media recs newsletter edition last Wednesday, but it had just come out a couple days before the newsletter was set to go out and I didn’t have time to listen to it on Tuesday night. The reason I didn’t have time is that I spent the evening leading with curiosity and saying yes to each next connection opportunity that presented itself.

I ran into a colleague on the way out of the office on his way to meet his team across the street for some post-work socializing, so I stopped to talk and then met his team. I met up with my partner at a coffee shop after that and we ran into a friend on his way to the gym and stopped to chat.

After that, I had a philanthropy meeting nearby and stayed after chatting with one, two, three groups of people, and then walked home with a friend heading the same direction. We stayed outside on the street corner chatting a while longer before we both headed home.

So, in the very spirit of my connector philosophy, the podcast episode will be held until the next edition.

Opt outside

As much as it pains me to say this when I’m home and cozy- you have to leave your house. We can do many, many things virtually, but we weren’t meant to reduce our entire lives to our screens, optimizing our days to maximize time we can spend staring at different screens.

The everyday experiences that bring unexpected joy and connection, that make my city feel like a small town, and that give me field notes to write about here require me to actually be in the field, so to speak. Life is hybrid now, and a surprise text or phone call can happen anywhere I have my phone (which is everywhere), but a big reason that I have people to communicate with via technology is from making friends in person first.

This may sound contradictory to my story about meeting virtually in the same city, but it’s not. I’m not saying we need to do everything in person. We don’t. But we should be intentional, and we should at least try to leave our houses on a regular basis, particularly if the only reason we’re not leaving is that we’re just opting for virtual at every opportunity.