The Importance of Being Present
One of the great things about working at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management is that, in addition to teaching and participating in school programs and event, I get to work with companies on interesting projects.
I work on a range of things. Sometimes I do talks and seminars on topics like Defensive Strategy, Executive Storytelling and Building Strong Brands. Other times I work on particular business situations.
A recent project left me with a simple and important learning: being present is critical.
The Project
Over the past quarter, I’ve had the chance to work with a leading company on a competitive situation. There were new entrants in their industry and the company was formulating a response. This was partly a strategy question and partly a political question: getting the team and the senior people on board.
I did the project remotely. I taught a class session for the team on Zoom, had multiple phone calls and then participated in two team planning sessions in a hybrid format.
The Problem
The project is winding down, and I’m not feeling great about it. I think I made a positive contribution, but not as much as I could have, for a very simple reason: I wasn’t there.
This wasn’t a problem for the class session; I can teach effectively on Zoom. It was definitely a limitation in the work session.
There were lots of problems with being remote. The first issue was that I couldn’t hear much of the conversation; I was picking up about 60% of the discussion. I could follow along but I missed some of the context. Then, it wasn’t easy for me to jump in; I didn’t know how I was showing up in the room, so I found it awkward to make a comment. I also couldn’t read the room. I couldn’t see how my comments were being received. Were people nodding and agreeing? Or rolling their eyes?
Perhaps most important, I wasn’t there for the open times: before the meeting, during the breaks, after the meeting. These liminal times are critical when it comes to influencing and building relationships. During a break one can follow-up on a comment, ask a question to clarify a point or just build a relationship.
In hindsight, I should have insisted that to take on the project, I had to travel to the company for the key meetings.
I didn’t do this because my schedule has been hectic, so travel would not have been easy. And the company didn’t request it; they routinely did hybrid and remote meetings.
My Learning
My takeaway is simple: don’t do a strategic project if you can’t be physically present.
I don’t need to take on company projects; I only accept a new program when I think I can add value and will learn something.
Going forward, I’ll pick and choose with a bit more care. I’ll still teach remotely, but I’ll only do strategy working meetings when I can be in the room.
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