The global pandemic taught us (some of us already knew) that we could work collaboratively without being in the same room.
Normally this is a decision taken through choice be it for logistics, timezone convenience, or doing our bit to save the planet but the pandemic effectively made it impossible to be in the same room as colleagues.
This was a novelty initially not having to travel to meetings that could have been online led to increased productivity through not losing hours to the journey between meetings but this bubble did indeed burst and led to burn out for people all over the place.
This on top of having increased family commitments (the small humans being home schooled, and concerns over vulnerable family members, and lack of free childcare from grandparents/relatives) turned the novelty into effectively a prison sentence.
I was delighted when the small humans returned to their normal routines, more for their social needs but it was also nice to have a coffee in peace.
Eventually travel bans were lifted and we were allowed out to play again, I was quick to risk assess and get myself some flights to Sweden to go see a customer I thoroughly enjoy spending time with not really comprehending it had been the best part of 2 years since we’d had an in-person workshop together and whilst Zoom(etc) is fine it is not the same as drinking coffee and drawing pictures on a real whiteboard.
I have just returned from my second trip in a few months where we’ve been making up for lost time in workshopping everything from hardware refresh, increased threat landscape from IoT expansion, technology ownership risks (acquisitions, and eggs in baskets), and generally looking at how things have changed across the COVID period and now as we ‘get back to normal (whatever that is)’ we look at how things have changed.
So much has changed, but so much has stayed the same too – get out there and see your customers – even if its just to drink coffee and laugh in a room that isn’t your home office / prison cell.