It’s A Brain Vibe Thing That Helps Us Connect
Prior in-person experience makes remote communication more effective
Welcome to the Gazebo! Thanks for stopping by!
In This Edition - Investing Time Today Creates Better Communication Later
Continuing with our look at the ways in which communication processes and technology affect remote work effectiveness, this week we will further unpack the difference between the way the brain reacts to meeting in-person vs by video link, and how the difference can be used to improve future communications.
Jill thought Fran looked troubled as she watched her order coffee from the barista. She had ordered the sweet double espresso with chocolate and cream, a sure sign she was stressed. “What’s up,” asked Jill? Fran hesitated a moment then replied, “I’ve hit a major snag with my project, and it’s stuck. Honestly, so am I.” She then explained what was happening. “Wow. That’s a tough one that I’ve never seen before,” said Jill. “You need to talk to Billy in engineering. He can help you with that.”
“I’ve heard of Billy, but I don’t know him. I’m sort of uncomfortable reaching out to him for help. You know what I mean,” asked Fran as she fumbled with her coffee cup? “I do,” said Jill, “but I know him. He’s a good guy. If you tell him I recommended that you call, he’ll help you out.” Fran looked up in surprise. “How do you know Billy?” “We worked together on a project last year,” said Jill. “He’s definitely the right guy for your situation. You should give him a call.”
Fran’s energy switched back on. “Thank you! I’ll get right on that,” she said quickly turning towards her office, almost spilling her coffee on them both. “I’ll buy the next one!” Jill laughed to herself thinking, “Billy is going to have his hands full with that one!”
We have all been “Fran” at one point or another in our careers, and needed help, but didn’t know who to call or how to contact them. It’s a tough spot and never comfortable, especially as the timer keeps running out on our deadline. Even if you find the right person, in today’s world, the odds of them being close by are pretty slim, and you will need to connect with them using some type of remote communication technology. Some of us were lucky enough to have a “Jill” step in to help us out, but others weren’t so lucky and had to figure it out on their own. Experience really does matter and the older I get the more I appreciate this reality.
Experience is an important communication consideration that is often overlooked and it becomes particularly important when working remotely. Our brains engage differently depending on whether we are meeting in-person or by video conference. Recent brain imaging studies showed that in-person meetings engaged more of our brains than seeing someone over a video connection. According to brain scans the video link meeting only lit up areas of our brains related to visual processing leaving the rest of the brain fairly inactive.
Image created by Ed Paulson using Copilot in Windows.
The in-person meeting, on the other hand, lit up larger portions of the brain which the researchers attributed to our brains picking up on various micro-cues that the video representation did not offer. The implication is that physical brain connections are made at a much deeper and more complicated level in-person than when using video conference. (For more details on this interesting topic check out my March 11, 2024 newsletter edition.)
Feeling less of a connection with remote folks probably contributes to proximity bias which is where leaders feel closer to those who are in closer physical proximity compared to those they see infrequently except over a video link.
does a nice job of discussing this in his March 17, 2024 post.These differences remind me of something a former sales manager told me about visiting a customer in person instead of over the phone. “It’s easy for them to hang up on you. It is a lot tougher to throw you out of their office.”
His point was this: In-person requires a much deeper level of engagement and commitment than is needed for remote communication like telephone, text, email, or video conference.
Why should you care about the difference when discussing remote work? Because you may want those deeper connections at a later date when life becomes complicated, which it has a way of doing on its own. To understand this, we need to talk about how we process information and knowledge when making decisions.
I think most of us intuitively know that giving a complicated task that is critically important to a novice employee is a recipe for failure. At some level we know that the person may become overwhelmed, may become completely stuck (the technical term for this is response uncertainty), or may take their best shot at getting it done even though they understand that they are way out of their depth. Sort of like a novice worker’s version of a Hail Mary Pass in football. They take their best shot and hope it works out.
We all know of projects that failed miserably and during the post-project review everyone realized that if the more knowledgeable folks had been involved earlier, the project could have been saved. What a lost opportunity!
Why would the more experienced worker have made a difference? Because the experienced worker has a knowledge base (through neural connections) from which to draw, that the novice doesn’t have, which helps them determine the next best course of action. They see the various elements presented in the situation and mentally process it against these prior experiences to determine a solution. It might still be a guess (after all predicting the future is tough, even for Yoda!) but it is a far more educated guess than could be offered by the novice and one more likely to succeed.
This is key: Experience can only be applied to the situation if the experienced worker is somehow notified that their services are needed. This means that there must be some type of early warning system in place to recognize the symptoms of a task on the verge of failure.
In the office, quite often these early alert systems are triggered through some type of person-to-person contact. The experienced person might check on the novice who says, with total sincerity, that they have it all under control, where the expert knows they are on the verge of trouble. It could be a casual in-person encounter over coffee, at lunch, in a meeting, or from managing by walking around, but the expert gets a hunch that something is off and brings added experience to the problem before it blows up. But how can this happen when working in a remote environment? That is where the difference in brain engagement between in-person and video conference comes into the picture.
Image created by Ed Paulson using Copilot in Windows.
Picture yourself as the novice who is in a remote location who realizes that he is in over his head. After a moment of panic, he decides to get help. OK. Sounds positive, but how does he do that? Who should he contact? Should he text, email, telephone, set up a Zoom? He may have heard the name of the person who can help, but if he has never met them he might be hesitant to reach out, sort of like Jill. If they had been in a Zoom meeting they may have seen each other on a list of names but there is still no relationship there.
But if they had been in a physical meeting together, or even better chatted for a few minutes during the break, they will have the deeper brain connections that come from personal contact which will make them more likely to reach out. After all, in their brains, they know this person much more than if they shared the upper left portion of a monitor as a talking head sitting in separate boxes. It’s different.
I am not someone typically afraid of meeting new people or asking for assistance, and even I would hesitate to contact someone I have never met before to ask for a favor. But if we had met even casually, I would be much more likely to reach out knowing that we shared a bond of some type. Now, think about how difficult it would be for a shy person to make the same request without any prior exposure. Fostering these deeper brain connections might not serve a functional need today, but I believe they will be helpful sometime in the future.
Bringing this back to remote work, these deeper brain connections are important when working from a distance. One of my first jobs, I trained at the corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley where I got to know key people in the sales, marketing, and engineering areas. I was then transferred to Cincinnati (a great town! Try the chili.) as the Regional Sales Manager. It was over a thousand miles away from headquarters and felt that way.
Quite often the distance was a good thing because we were free from a lot of the headquarters politics, but if there was a problem we often needed to call headquarters to find a solution. This was when my prior in-person relationships became important! They knew me and I knew them. When I called about something, I wasn’t just another sales guy calling to complain. They took my calls seriously, which I appreciated. Most of the other field office personnel had never been to headquarters so they did not have the same level of personal engagement or access, and dreaded asking “corporate” for help.
Recall from my March 11, 2024 post that different communication media have different abilities to transfer information which is measured as media richness. (This is a topic covered in detail in my Getting Through book.) Remote technologies such as email, text, and video conference are less rich and offer fewer of the communication cues that support correct understanding. When workers move remote, they are restricted to these leaner media which presents communication challenges, and this is where the prior experiences become important. The deeper brain connections from the prior in-person experiences help fill in the communication gaps that are intrinsic to leaner communication, which will decrease the likelihood of misunderstanding. We can all use a little more understanding these days.
The remote work decision isn’t a binary in-office or remote decision. Everyone wins when it is a deliberate and reasonable blend of both.
Do you work in a remote office? What is it like to be on a video conference call with others sitting in same room? Do you feel forgotten?
What is it like to get the attention of people at “corporate” when you need their help? How do you know who to contact?
What type of policy does your company use to foster deeper relationships between in-person and remote workers?
#communication, #remotework, #brainconnections, #experience, #understanding
I am honored that you stopped by and promise to make each post as valuable as possible.
If you liked what you read, then please click the Subscribe Now button to be notified automatically when something new posts. Don’t miss out on something helpful to you simply because you forgot to visit my newsletter site. Your information will never be shared and will only be used for us to communicate with each other.
Inviting others to join us here is always appreciated!
DON’T MISS THE NEXT EDITION OF THE BIZDOCTOR’S GAZEBO – SUBSCRIBE!
START A CONVERSATION (Subscribers only. Subscribe to comment. It’s Free!)
FOR SUBSTACKERS – RECOMMEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO OTHERS
LEARN MORE ABOUT BUSINESS COMMUNICATION FROM MY “GETTING THROUGH” BOOK
New! Listen to Ed Paulson explain his latest book “Getting Through.”
(Short 3 minute YouTube Video)
To become a better communicator, check out my recently published book “Getting Through: A Systematic Approach To Being Understood” (ISBN: 9798987950807) available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers. It is only 130 pages long and can be read in just a few hours. Those few hours will change the way you communicate long into the future.
Getting Through: A Systematic Approach To Being Understood (ISBN: 9798987950807)
From the “Getting Through” book description on Amazon:
“Have you ever wondered why you are misunderstood? Would it shock you to know that it could be HOW you delivered the message? Did you know that the media you use to deliver a message affects the way it is interpreted by others? That’s right! Texting, email, video conference, telephone, and in-person meetings are not interchangeable, but nobody explains that to us, so we are forced to learn the best way to use them by trial and error. Until now!”
It has been shown time and again that those who are perceived as better communicators are more likely to get ahead within an organization. “Getting Through” makes a great gift to a person who is new to working within a larger company and required to use their communication infrastructure. By applying the methods detailed in this short book, employees can increase their communication effectiveness and decrease the likelihood of making communication errors that can negatively affect their careers.
What Others Say About “Getting through”
"A must-read for anyone looking to improve their own or their team's effectiveness."
- Laura Pesek, Senior Vice President for Performance Optimization, Big Chalk Analytics
"Ed Paulson's best book to date. These simple methods changed the way my team communicates and how we relate to our customers. Read it and help everyone you know get a copy."
- Dan McManus, President, TeamFloral
"Ed Paulson has compiled the secrets we accidentally learn about communication reality into an easy-to-read guide that will affect how you communicate long into the future."
- Penny Giza, Former Financial Group Manager, Exelon Corporation
"This interesting, quick read perfectly explains the art and science of business communication. Dr. Paulson's pragmatic and intuitive approach is packed with real-life application. Simply, an investment one cannot afford to miss!"
- Tracy Heiner, Former Sales Vice President, Brink's
Copyright © 2024 by Ed Paulson. All Rights Reserved.