Post Pandemic Prediction: Unpixellated People
The theory is that the continued dominance of remote work will be one of the lasting consequences of the pandemic. Along with it, we are told to expect a tectonic set of social, economic, and cultural shifts that will recenter the zeitgeist from urban to, well, wherever the hell you and your laptop want to plotz.
If you ask The Reductionist, the theory is so full of bullchips its eyes are brown.
That, at least, is a conclusion reached after more than two weeks of left coast work and travel; much of it spent engaging in formerly virally-verboten behavior—actual handshakes, non-virtual hugs, even the occasional sloppy smooch. All made possible by the utter improbability of a vaccine developed and deployed on a massive, curve-flattening scale, in an impossibly short period of time.
Very dangerous, admittedly, to be leaping to such a broad conclusion based on a data point of one. But here’s the thing: people don’t just look better in person; they feel better as well. And because they do, on some very Maslovian grounds, I’m betting that the magnetic pull of proximity will prove irresistible.
Following in trail: an unlooked-for uptick in the quality and creativity of the work coming out of companies in just about every sector, ad-makers included. After all, humans are social animals, not disembodied thought machines. We seek subtle cues in the faces and body language of our collaborators and clients. We need that non-verbal connection, whether affirming or challenging, to sustain involvement and drive our ambition for better.
That’s the kind of life support we just can’t get on kludgy Zoom or Teams screens, even if wearing sweats just below the camera’s line of sight offers some offsetting satisfaction. Simply because that tiny lens, no matter how carefully positioned or artfully lit, doesn’t have the physical ability to faithfully render all the dimensions needed to underpin true connection.
Of course, there’s no opportunity without challenge and to fellow travelers in the marketing world, particularly those who lead teams, here’s some uninvited urging:
Give people the opportunity to rediscover the joy of in-person for themselves. For the near-term, plan on hybrid home/office work patterns, and let folks find their own equilibrium. Recruitment dollars gets you increased retention rates they’ll be in the office more and more.
On a related score, this is also a damned good moment to rethink the ergonomics of working together and reset the table in a way that promotes ear-to-ear engagement, not headphones. Especially, if your office has previously revolved around what noted ad blogger Rich Siegel sardonically calls “The Long Table of Mediocrity™
Last, raise your expectations and the quality and impact bar. While there are solid reasons the 2020s won’t mirror image the Roaring 20s, it will be period of rock and roll economics. In coming together, I’m betting we’ll uncork a wellspring of energy; fuel for the kind creative resurgence not seen since, well, the 1960s.
In one of his more wonderful bits of copy craft, T.S. Eliot tells us that “the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.” For us, in this moment, I’m thinking that what we’ll rediscover won’t be a place. Instead, it will be the faces of the people we’ve been missing all along.
See you there.