Last month, I had the privilege to fly across the pond to the UK for a special reason…
To host a customer/partner dinner for Kadence and record some content with the team for our forthcoming Kadence Events feature that is going live this fall!
While I was there I:
- Had some great meetings/site visits with kick-ass workplace leaders like: Rob Blair, Lamia Zaky, Phil Purves, Darren Graver, Hayley Samuels, Dharshni Singh, Bex Morehouse, + more
- Recorded a long format convo with my lovely teammate Helen Attia-Tolken on the significance of gatherings in a post-covid environment
- Recorded podcasts with Caleb Parker to discuss all things future of work (Listen to it here or watch our full conversation below)
It was quite the trip to say the least and it left me with a fairly singular feeling:
In an increasingly distributed world of work, in-person events and live, unstructured conversations are vital to a degree that I can’t quantify with words.
Was our fully in-office past putting unnecessary pressure on the rest of our lives? Undeniably yes…
Coming Together In Person
Do we need to be together every day? Absolutely not…
But do we need to be more intentional? Yes, yes and another yes!
To me, the big unlocks of coming together in-person aren’t about:
- white-boarding
- water cooler chats
- or working shoulder to shoulder
Coming together is increasingly about:
- hugs, hugs and more hugs
- sharing who we are as people
- getting aligned on the future we want to create
You can watch my conversation with Helen 👇
At our customer/partner dinner, I led the group through a “get to know” game.
I put a deck of conversation cards on the table that said things like:
- “a conversation you wish you could have again…”
- “if you want to make my skin crawl, tease me about…”
- “if I could whisper something in the ear of my younger self I would say…”
And then asked people to introduce themselves (very briefly), pick up a card and answer the question/fill in the blank. I made sure to tell folks not to overthink it.
“If you draw a blank, pick another card.”
“If you’re not comfortable answering, pick another card.”
By sharing more about who we were and our life experiences, we got more connected, and then we got aligned on the Future of Work we are all trying to create.
It was a powerful experience to say the least. Digital artwork hasn’t made real life art less valuable. If anything, it’s the opposite.
The same is true for the Future of Work.
Flexible working is amplifying the need for moments that matter in a BIG way.
Stay tuned for more and let me know your thoughts on my LinkedIn page.
Until next time,
Dave
Dave is Kadence’s Future of Work Strategist. He foresees what’s unfolding in the world of work and advises our customers on how to prepare and adapt to the latest trends easily.
