{"id":1802,"date":"2017-06-30T18:02:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2017-06-30T18:13:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:13:16","slug":"being-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/being-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Being there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chances are, you\u2019ve heard or read (or both) about the ongoing debate around working remotely in law-firms. I won\u2019t open that debate here, though it\u2019s interesting and, from my perspective, important and will only gain in relevance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at today\u2019s reality in law firms, chances also are that you and your team are, at least for the main part, not working remotely. Which means that very likely you are spending a major part of your waking time in the close physical vicinity of your colleagues (whether lawyers or in any other role).<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter what the upsides of remote work may be, there are also certain characteristics of physically being around people, that \u2013 at least for now \u2013 are unmatched by technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

To reap these upsides of joint physical presence, people have to be jointly physically present, though. Sounds like it truism? Yeah, it likely is. But still \u2013 walk around the offices of any given firm and you will see many people hunkered down in their offices, maybe door closed, maybe behind a screen. Often you\u2019ll even see people using their computer monitor to shield them from direct view from the door (just wrap your head around this \u2013 are we really using the physical manifestation of the virtual world (screen) to protect against the physical consequences of the analogous world (being visible)??!? Well…).<\/span><\/p>\n

Now…I get it. A lot of the work we all do is screen-bound. Or requires alone-time and quiet. That\u2019s just what we do, whether remotely or in the office. But since we\u2019re at the office anyway, why not at least also make the most of the one thing technology can\u2019t even seem to begin to give us?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, let me challenge you to not simply see the office as another location at which you stare at a screen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Just try out what happens, when you see it as an increasingly rare opportunity to interact with others in person. If you don\u2019t already do it, let me dare you to do as many of the following as you can get into your day. Try it for a week. See what happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Take a cup of coffee\/tea\/water and walk over to a colleage to discuss in person whatever you normally would discuss via email. You might even bring along a cup for the other person. And if you\u2019re worried about lack of documentation, you can always confirm your results by email later.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) For quick check-ins with your team members: just go there. Say hi. Ask if everything is going ok or anything noteworthy has come up. Listen to the answer. Again, if documentation is a concern, ask for a short follow-up by email or send one yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) When coming in in the morning or leaving at night, don\u2019t use the shortest possible route from the elevator to your desk. Make it a point to say \u201ehi\u201c or \u201ebye\u201c to every person in your team that is already\/still around, even if this forces you to commit to an outrageous extra 15 meters on your feet.<\/span><\/p>\n

4) Instead of at the water cooler or the coffee machiche, spend a break by physically going into a department you would normally not go to. See who sits there, how they sit there, what they\u2019re doing. Say hi. Speak to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

5) If someone sitting 6 meters away from you sends you a question by email that can be answered in person, get up, go there and answer the question in person. That might even apply up to distances at the edge of ultra – 20 meters or so.<\/span><\/p>\n

6) Encourage people on your team to dial-in to joint conference calls not from their desks, but from your office or a small conference room. Or offer to go to someone else\u2019s office. If anyone needs a computer, can a laptop or tablet be used?<\/span><\/p>\n

7) The next time you start a project, do a brief (!) all hands kick-off meeting, with you (or someone else) quickly talking through the main points, answering questions, allocating tasks, sending people on their way.<\/span><\/p>\n

8) Encourage others around you to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

Play with this a bit. You might be surprised. And I\u2019d love to hear back how this turned out for you.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chances are, you\u2019ve heard or read (or both) about the ongoing debate around working remotely in law-firms. I won\u2019t open that debate here, though it\u2019s interesting and, from my perspective, important and will only gain in relevance. Looking at today\u2019s reality in law firms, chances also are that you and your team are, at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}