Digital water cooler moments - answers to some questions
As we are at the end of month 6 of the lockdown in the UK (for some of you it has been longer), the hot topic of creating meaningful digital water cooler moments is still being discussed, and heavily. The discussions are around Zoom/VR fatigue, general mental health strain, specific video conferencing stress (eg cognitive dissonance with shapes of faces and lack of physical presence), lower employee engagement, lack of understanding/empathy from line managers, feelings of isolation and loneliness, misunderstandings & miscommunications - the list goes on. The importance of connection which used to occur most frequently through the water cooler moments, have now all but disappeared. How do we recreate those into digital water cooler moments?
Today Davina and I ran a webinar with Thrive HR Exchange (see recording here under Past Events) on Effective Communication - the gateway to strong, impactful relationships. I didn’t say anything new in the webinar but it was to serve as a reminder that we have more tools on our toolkit than we think, and that a lot of the work starts with ourselves.
One of the attendees asked a couple of questions which I answered below. I am taking the cheat’s way out and just cutting & pasting the answers I had for him because I thought it was important to share this info with you, and how I have been working with my clients on this very topic. So here goes…
Firstly, I suggested a chat for me to better understand the circumstances in which this individual works and also what the specific challenges are and who/ & what the players are in the scenario.
1) Could you please suggest some creative ideas on how to break the silence and to get people to be more participative over the phone?
· For team/group meetings, video calls are preferable to phone calls – as mentioned in the webinar, the non-visual cues are almost more important than what they have to say
· Ensure that you send out the agenda and some pertinent questions and issues you would like to address in the meeting. Reiterate that you will be expecting participation, input and idea generation from everyone – so this means they HAVE to be prepared and additionally, they have been warned that they will be asked to speak up
· A simple, going round the table asking everyone to take turns to contribute with ideas will help
· Couple this with eg DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats for group discussions – again this requires input from all
· Create a general culture of encouraging people to speak up, even if it is in disagreement. Being Asian myself, I know that at times, hierarchical societies discourage speaking up, out of respect. If you want to change that dynamic, encourage that practice all the time, not just in meetings. Explain that it is equally as respectful to you and to your team if there is shared interest and input into addressing the issue
· Arrange regular catchups with people (ie at a minimum weekly, preferably more frequently) – where you are not just checking in on work stuff but leave time to warm the conversation up with generalities and this often leads to a wealth of information and insights
· Do offer events that are purely for fun and nothing else. Some people will be too cool for school to initially engage but the point of them is that when they see others are human, there will be more engagement and the lowering of barriers
2) How does one run digital water coolers – is it just a virtual tea/coffee chat?
· They can just be virtual tea/coffee chats – as mentioned in the point above, leave room for general conversations, or in fact just have ‘teas/coffees’ with no agenda, just a chat
· This article (thanks @unremot) has a great perspective on the general things you might want to think about to create digital water cooler moments. For me, what is vital is ‘why are they important?’ and ‘what are you trying to achieve through these digital water cooler moments?’- in answering those questions, you are going to be more able to address those issues in a more effective manner
· Point 8 in the article talks about the actual activities which you might undertake such as games, book clubs, lunch & learns etc. Check with your team to see what they would like to do and put something in the diary during the week, for them, preferably at the end of the working day or a small part of post work day. It needs to be something fun but not something that people will resent. By asking your team members for their suggestions, you are going to get much better buy-in. Additionally rotate activities and get feedback to see if it’s going well or not. Many had people within teams who started off with resentment and eye-rolling but once they got into the spirit of things, everyone was engaged and interested
· Personally I have found with my clients, fun but competitive events work well for bonding and gaining trust – like karaoke nights or quiz nights or even exercise events like a group workout where people are split into mini-teams to compete against each other
· As mentioned in the webinar, some of the things my clients are trying are the following:
o Open Zoom/Teams time slots – where everyone is working but the Zoom is left open so people can speak up whenever. An example is one client has done this with his team – daily between 10am-2pm when the kids are at school and therefore there is less background noise. Another has done this for 2/5 days but for 3/5 – only the ones who want to sign in, can (ie compulsory/vs optional – this suited those who worked part-time too who would partake on particular days and yet feel engaged)
o An option to have daily mid morning/mid afternoon tea/coffee breaks as a group or bi-weekly after work drinks - even if it is only for 30 mins
The digital water cooler moments are about connection and engagement between humans. Yes the medium is different but with a bit of creativity, group input and a desire to make it work, those can absolutely happen!
Good luck!
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