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To make the most of in-person work and business opportunities for connection, companies or organizations need to make them voluntary, strategic, and intentional.
The desire among younger employees to work remotely is not going away, a recent Harvard Business Review article said. In the article, social psychologist Heidi Grant and EY Americas Chief Learning Officer Tal Goldhamer discussed the commonly held beliefs about working — and networking — in person. We’re sharing their four myths about in-person work for our 2023 Events Industry Forecast.
Myth No. 1: In-person learning is more effective. “The idea that learning is more effective in person is demonstrably false. In fact, because it rarely affords opportunities for meaningful practice and feedback, in-person learning often is less impactful than well-designed virtual live learning and eLearning.”
Myth No. 2: In-person events help create culture. “Culture is what we experience all day, every day, working at a particular company — it is decidedly not what we experience when we step away from the ‘normal’ routine for various workshops and keynotes with nice buffet dinners and drinks.”
Myth No. 3: People need a break from their screens. “When attending multiday learning programs and events, many people experience greater stress from the backlog of work and emails that pile up. The solution must be a long-term approach to employee well-being, not a single show of in-person workshops.”
Myth No. 4: Networking and connection can only happen in person. “With time and a little more practice, we’ll do what human beings have always done when new ways of communicating emerged (think of the telephone, emailing, texting, and social media): We’ll get the hang of it.”
Casey Gale is managing editor of Convene.
