From pixels to people: The magic of face-to-face meetings
July 19th 2024
By Monica Brito
Operations Assistant at Stone Soup Consulting
When team members are scattered across different cities, countries, or even continents, fostering a sense of unity and cohesion presents challenges. This is where the magic of a face-to-face meeting comes into play.
Sure, today’s technology allows us to create experiences that were unimaginable twenty years ago. Still, it’s easy to admit that a Zoom call isn’t exactly the most encouraging way to build real relationships. We can also have fun by simply activating an emoji, but it is far away from the camaraderie that comes from sharing a traditional appetiser related to our country, explaining the special story behind our choice or offering it to a colleague with our own hands. The same hands that part of our team was not convinced existed, as no proof had yet been provided by any virtual interaction or digital entity.
In fact, this ‘sharing of appetisers’ was just one of the highlights of Stone Soup‘s second retreat. During the last week of May, nearly 30 members of our community gathered in Aranjuez, a pleasant location in the Spanish countryside near Madrid. Just like the first retreat in 2022, in Portugal, this event was focused on Stone Soup’s core values and provided an additional opportunity to reflect on them. Structured brainstorming sessions and team integration exercises were offered around important topics such as diversity, and how our community is understood by its members. But it was not intended to be a work-focused international gathering. Rather, the retreat in Spain was thought to be a much-needed space to unwind and an opportunity to build stronger personal connections.
For the first time the event was child-friendly, with a babysitter on site, and we had the lovely presence of 3-year-old Alba. The elements of fun and relaxation ended up coming into play for all, providing an atmosphere for the group to engage in activities they might not normally try – taking a hike in the nature, joining a card game in the garden, exploring a newfound appreciation for Kenyan black tea with an Egyptian blend, or ‘shaking it off’ in a spontaneous musical evening.
Let’s face it: in this type of event, there is no format that perfectly suits all types of personalities and expectations. An acute extrovert will naturally feel invigorated by a breath of social fresh air. An extreme introvert needs to be given the space to navigate comfortably through the agenda without having to call 911. Despite all the preparations involved, the real power of a retreat comes when people are allowed to be themselves, otherwise there’s no sense of purpose and authenticity. This is why it was so important for Stone Soup to structure our retreat with a generous dose of flexibility and free time, one of the key points our organising team considered for this year’s event. As one participant shared, “I thought some of the activities might be a bit uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. I connected more with people than I expected and felt more motivated.”
The overall feedback collected from our consultants reassures that this is an important community building initiative for Stone Soup, with room for continuous improvement and for focusing on different types of activities. Those of us who accepted this invitation (it was an optional event) had the chance to step out of their online platforms, to strengthen bonds, increase collaboration, and create experiences that an Outlook message can’t quite capture.
The impact of these initiatives is not only observed in practice by those who take part of them but is also supported by research. According to the MIT Sloan Management Review, face-to-face interactions are critical for building trust and cooperation among team members. Two years ago, MIT researchers provided valuable insights into this issue through the paper The returns to face-to-face interactions: knowledge spillovers in Silicon Valley, They were able to quantify the significance of in-person moments, by measuring these types of interactions between workers. (at different establishments) When remote teams meet in person, they feel energised and see each other as more than just email addresses or usernames. This means that those unexpected comments and impromptu discussions during a retreat can drive to significant breakthroughs that might never happen in another environment. These humanising moments can lead to a stronger sense of belonging.
In almost sixteen years of activity, the Stone Soup community has grown to include members of over twenty nationalities, representing geographical regions from all corners of the world, including Australia, Africa and Latin America. It is safe to say that a retreat is an opportunity for Stone Soup to tap into this diversity and overcome distance, but it can go much further than that. It has the potential to foster innovation, support mental health and become a powerful tool to reinforce company culture.
Although it hasn’t yet been possible to get all of our +70 community members together in the same physical space, perhaps it will be achievable in the future – who knows? For now, these moments are proving to be less related to the ideal size of the group or the perfect number of hours spent together. It is much more about what lives on – throughout the whole community – long after these days are over.
