Can you create a round table on a flat screen?
… the challenge of building community and relationships in our new virtual business world.
MichBusiness Peer Groups are a safe-haven for professionals to meet and openly discuss sensitive issues among their peers, in person. At an office, in a conference room, around a table, coffee in hand.
In March, along with the rest of the world, the peer groups pivoted the monthly meetings to a digital platform. In homes, at the dining room table, coffee in hand…in front of a flat screen.
It got different.
Since the pandemic began, the MichBusiness Peer Groups have grown. Attendance is up – an indication of the members’ need for mutual support through tough times. The peer groups have tolerated the awkwardness of being seen on screen, learned how to turn off our cameras if our kids or pets or spouses burst into the room unannounced, and even remembered to unmute each time we speak…well, most of the time.
But, can you create the same round-table feel, intimate atmosphere on screen that we once had in person?
The world thought this was going to be a temporary situation. That soon we would be driving to our meetings, coffee in hand, in person. But, it isn’t temporary. We won’t be meeting in person any time soon. We’re at that uncomfortable place just before truly accepting our current reality. The Peer Groups are virtual. So, what action can be taken to make the flat screen reality into a round table experience?
The Peer Group facilitators met recently and discussed this very issue. Each one is dedicated to developing their individual facilitation skills in order to sustain the intimate group culture worked so hard to create. Now, asking the question to our members what they can do individually and collectively to build on this evolving round-table/flat screen experience.
Each group is unique. Each has different needs and a different personality. Yet each group is comprised of professionals with a common need to be heard and to belong to something bigger. A need to be connected to other human professionals.
Can we create this connection that happens so naturally at a round table on a flat screen? What are your thoughts?
Therese Smith is the Director of Education & Programs for MichBusiness and oversees all of the company’s peer groups. For more information about MichBusiness Peer Groups, email tsmith@michbusiness.org.
