It can be challenging to find the balance between making it to a flight and avoiding face-to-face contact. Patrick Gray outlines three situations in which business trips are necessary.
Judging by the hustle and bustle of Tumi-wearing individuals and crowded lounges for frequent travelers, business travel has made a comeback in a big way. Desolate airports have once again become obstacle courses of people, suitcases and the occasional golf cart transporting a delayed traveler at significant risk to the surrounding masses of humanity. You could be forgiven for forgetting that the world is still recovering from the COVID pandemic, save for the occasional masked person at the airport and ongoing testing requirements.
As a recovering travelholic, it was a major challenge to recalibrate my personal tolerance for travel and the expectation I had set with my teams and leadership. In 2019 I took more than 140 flights for work and spent a similar number of nights in hotels away from my family and home. In 2020 I took all four flights and soon began to enjoy the simple joys of being around when my kids came back from school or cooking on a weeknight.
Now that restrictions have been lifted around the world, I have started to travel more for work and have tried to establish the criteria for when I jump on a plane to meet colleagues. Here are the three criteria I’ve found to determine when it makes sense to pay the cost and physical and mental toll of riding a metal tube around the world:
1. Meeting new people or teams
One problematic dynamic of remote-first workplaces is establishing an interpersonal relationship with someone you’ve only seen on a screen. While there is some benefit to seeing people around them along with the occasional appearance of family and pets, having non-work-related interactions during a scheduled time isn’t easy. video conference†
By meeting a new employee, team member, or group, you can have these interpersonal moments between meetings, during meals, and all the little moments in between. You’ll get the chance to share stories, shake hands, and maybe hear details about that person’s life that are hard to share in a virtual context.
Aside from the joys and sense of belonging we get from interacting with other people, you’ll probably find that you can work better with those individuals after meeting them in person. Not only will you gain a richer picture of their lives and personalities, but you will also gain a better understanding of how to collaborate and communicate and make your collaboration more effective.
SEE: Home video setup: what you need to look and sound professional (Tech Republic Premium)
2. Strategy Development
Most people have found that generating ideas is a challenge during a video conference. You’ve probably experienced the drifting stares and lack of attention that arrive after 60-90 minutes when you’re trying to brainstorm intensively via video.
Assembling a team in person to collaborate and co-create is a very effective use of personal time. A few days together can replace weeks of semi-focused remote collaboration. However, make sure to use personal time well and focus on solving difficult problems or developing new strategies, rather than planning and executing activities. The latter can usually be done well from a distance, and you risk losing the value of bringing people together in the same space if you stray too far from synthesis and into planning.
3. Onboarding
Some personal time is precious, whether you are bringing new people into your company or have recently started a new company. It’s unbelievable how much corporate culture is transferred through simple things like sharing stories about past projects, challenges or events within the company.
This storytelling is difficult to replicate in a virtual environment and is critical to understanding corporate culture and unwritten rules. Perhaps one of the most challenging outcomes of the global pandemic has been hiring new employees without any interpersonal interaction. Most companies quickly figured out how to ship laptops and perform the required logistics, and some even created extensive virtual training programs. However, most of the people I’ve spoken to who struggle to feel a connection with their employer and their co-workers have gone through virtual onboarding.
While it can be difficult to redo the onboarding, especially for people who have been on the payroll for more than a year, encouraging in-person mentoring and informal storytelling can make up for lost time without the need for excessive travel or interruptions.
SEE: Remote hiring: how to hire new talent safely and efficiently? (TechRepublic)
A chance to rethink business travel
Like many, I was excited to meet new colleagues, see project sites, and spend time in the same room working out my team’s strategy when pandemic travel restrictions were lifted. However, I also hate going back to the days of weekly travel and hopping on a plane just to see and be seen. Perhaps the most crucial consideration for a face-to-face meeting is being deliberate and thoughtful to maximize that time together and balance it with the tasks that are effective when working remotely.
