Zooming In… Zooming Out

Musing on meeting new colleagues in person for the first time.

I wonder what I’ll learn about my new colleagues when we meet in person? I wonder how team dynamics will change when the whole team is together? I wonder what we will miss from our online experiences?

Like me, millions of people have started new roles during the pandemic lock down and have never met their colleagues in 3D. Seven months ago, I began a new role at Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford, and all of my interactions with the team have been on online.We are “face-to-face” on Zoom each day, but have never been in the same room together. As we move closer to going back to the office, my mind is swimming with questions.

I know how to work with my new colleagues remotely, and am in the dark about how we will work together in person.

Working in person with this team for the first time will require me to learn a new language, or at least a new dialect, of interaction. Below are some questions that I’m asking before we begin in-person work. Some are simple, tactical questions about lunch schedules and dress codes, while others are much more nuanced, related to how we engage at a much deeper level.

Should I drop by your desk to ask a quick question?

When working online, the quickest way to get an answer to a question is to send a message via Slack, text, or email. Is this the norm when we are all together, or is it customary to walk up to someone and ask directly? If the question is for several people, do you walk up to the group and ask, or do you wait for a scheduled meeting, send an email, or a Slack message?

If we continue to act the same way we do when we were fully online, will we miss valuable benefits of working in person? What were the norms on my new team before the lock down? What will change when we return after more than a year of remote work?

What is the ambient noise level in the office?

Is the office quiet? Is there a hum of voices? Can you hear all the conversations going on? Whose voice is loudest? What other ambient noise…