21 October, 2020

Just finished a project at at United Nations New York, in the middle of Corona.

Before Corona I was convinced that group dynamics and feedback processes require face to face contact. After these online (group)coachings, as an organizational psychologist, I had to reconsider a few premises I took for granted:
– human beings are able to adapt quickly in extreme circumstances
– those who show up are willing to contribute (even if they did not fill out the 360 survey)
– interaction helps deepening the insights
– group dynamics is NOT negatively influenced, under the condition participants know each other
– our sponsor “Maybe the virtual environment had made it in some ways more comfortable for everyone than us all being in the same room sitting around a table.”
– we will have to get used to a hybrid meeting culture (some participants will participate remotely, while others will be together in a room)

Conditions for these virtual meetings are:
– keep the video turned on to avoid losing invaluable non-verbal cues
– facilitate with more structure and give clear instructions
– have all participants speak during the first 10 minutes
– help participants to reduce airtime and be more to the point
– be fully present and focused as a facilitator