Rediscovering the Value of the In Person One-on-One Meeting

On Wednesday this last week, I had a one-on-one meeting with a close colleague and dear friend, Dr. Mark Pochapin. While it was originally set up as a Zoom, I emailed Mark the night before asking if I could join him in his office instead, of course abiding by CDC and company guidelines for COVID-19. We’ve both been fully vaccinated and I knew the increased productivity and emotional lift would make the effort well worth it. Mark responded instantaneously, “This is music to my ears! See you tomorrow.”

Mark and I have worked together throughout the pandemic, but had not seen each other outside a Zoom square in about a year. As a physician leader, Dr. Pochapin sprung into action on the clinical frontlines and was responsible to coordinating the “COVID army” response during last spring’s NYC surge (Check out his interview with Katie Couric here). Not being clinical, my role was focused on the data, providing timely metrics and reporting, working with my colleagues and the DOH to rapidly expand bed capacity to manage the surge, and project managing the mass casualty workflow. A Hazmat suit hanging in the corner of his office was an eerie reminder of all we (the collective we) have been through.

Could being present be a gesture of respect in this post-COVID era?

Mark and I, both leadership junkies, reflected on the impact of making the time to meet with someone in person in a post-COVID world. We shared stories about our own experiences of the pain and the heroism we’d witnessed in the war against COVID-19, how our families fared through it all, and how we each were holding up.

Being physically in the same space enabled an emotional presence and presence of spirit that is hard to replicate over WiFi. It was special and it was long overdue after a year starved of human connection. A long-time believer in the power and impact of a hand-written note, it seems that taking the time to travel and carve out a portion of your day to meet in person may be the post-COVID equivalent. At least in this reopening period.

It only takes a second to rattle off an email to thank someone. To sit down and take the time to handwrite a thank you note, use a stamp, and drop it in the mail is a radical gesture. Even moreso, it seems that taking the time to travel to meet with someone face-to-face vs. hopping on a Zoom, Webex, or virtual equivalent conveys a commitment to the power of the human connection that digital solution cannot fully replicate.

To sit down and take the time to handwrite a thank you note, use a stamp, and drop it in the mail is a radical gesture of respect.

Even moreso, it seems that taking the time travel to meet with someone face-to-face vs. hopping on a Zoom conveys a commitment to the human connection that digital solutions cannot fully replicate.

– MARY ENQUIST

The Impact of Coming On Site

On a similar theme, over the past month, I’ve had the privilege of facilitating the strategic planning process across our health system’s geographic sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Six months ago pre-vaccine, we improvised and conducted these meetings by Zoom. While it was good to continue these twice annual reviews, particularly after what our organization has been through on the front-lines of the pandemic, long days full of consecutive meetings and the virtual format didn’t mix well.

The fatigue of these sessions was heightened, as was the temptation to multi-task through them. We’ve all been there. Virtual brought an increased efficiency and made these possible, but came with some trade-off on each participant’s ability to sustain engagement. Everyone involved did the best they could, but inherent in the fully virtual format was a slight loss of candor in the dialogue, a waning of attention, and an unintentionally decrease in the respect by diminished focus and presence.

Given the ability to meet safely in-person this Spring with appropriate precautions, I’ve made the point to come onsite, not only to our flagship in Manhattan, but also to travel to our Long Island hub in Minneola, NY and our Brooklyn hub in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Doing so has been incredibly special and has fueled my own tank with motivation and energy. Hopping on the Hutchinson River Boulevard to the Cross Island Parkway or continuing down the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), gave me time and space away from home to center my thoughts for the work ahead.

Last week, a few minutes from our LI main campus, I was stopped at a red light and I looked up to see the site of an ambulatory care center that my team had helped support the master planning analytics for over the past 2 years. From rendering to built structure, it was really cool to see it sitting right there in front of me.

On campus at both sites, I was literally brought back to the boardrooms were our first conversations with each organization had taken place 5-years prior to affiliation. While my role has evolved since that time, I’m humbled for having been a part of it all from the earliest conversations of a potential partnership to having both fully integrated, adding to the breadth and depth of our top-quality health system. In this moment, I’m tremendously grateful for having stayed in my role and given my team and my institution the loyalty and commitment to truly see the work through.

I’ve always valued my relationships with colleagues and strive to be fully present in my interactions, genuinely listening with curiosity and openness. This is easier said than done, of course, particularly in this increasingly digital world, but it is something I aspire to and find powerful.

In the work my team and I support, the ability to build and maintain respectful, trustworthy relationships with individuals across the enterprise is absolutely critical, whether it be a M&A project or strategic planning for program development. Coming in, we are rarely the expert on anything, but rather listen to and support the experts in clearly articulating their strategies, with data to back it up.

Functioning as an internal consultant team for the Health System, it’s a lot like being on the road to meet clients onsite. The deferential act of going to meet a person in their office or conference room, valuing their time more than your own, and making the effort to show up and be “all in” on your commitment is more important now than ever. The sidebar conversations that are had as you walk down the hallway together or engage in light banter between meetings is often just as important as the agenda items to be formally discussed.

From these interactions, you can discern tone, body language, and get a less veiled read of how someone is doing. It’s also an opportunity to share and let yourself be known and seen as a real person vs. the role you hold in a company. It’s easy to hide behind a black suit, a title, or a Zoom screen. Showing up and being authentically yourself takes more effort, more courage, and is much more effective in building relationships and having personal impact.

While virtual meetings have been an absolute lifesaver for connecting colleagues across geographic regions, I truly believe there is something special about traveling onsite and meeting your business partner on their “home field.” It’s likely the small town girl in me, but I get a thrill at stopping in the lobby coffee shop, eating the hospital cafeteria shoulder-to-shoulder (socially distanced) with our frontline heroes, and even taking a moment to pop in the chapel to center on the work ahead of me that day and send up a prayer for all the patients in our care.

I appreciate that this moment in our history is unique and who knows, in 2-3 more months the impact of meeting in person and traveling on site may be diminished in the “new normal.” That being said, I believe it’s always been important to show respect through being present and meeting your colleague/customer where they are at. In my own experience, I’ve found that its more impactful than ever right now.

As a leader who strives to live each day intentionally and to be present to both the people with which I work and my family, figuring out the balance between flexwork and in-person travel for maximum impact is something I have found myself thinking each time I look ahead on my calendar. I truly hope we come out of this time having learned how to flex these muscles, find greater balance, and deepen our ability to cultivate and maintain meaningful relationships in our purposeful work.