Earlier this week, I was coaching a new client on engagement in the virtual world.
The question: How can we create connection when the digital landscape feels flat?
Answer:
1. Get your clients to connect with themselves in real time.
2. Connect with them and connect them to each other.
3. Connect the ideas.
One of the largest barriers in collaborative work is a lack of presence. We expect people to be ready and pay attention. We assume they know how.
When an audience enters a theatre, they bring with them all of their lived experiences. The same happens in the classroom, the therapy room, and the boardroom. Presenters are commonly up against the history and rhetoric each person brings to the seat in which they are sitting. Without presence within the current moment, each aspect of the conversation is placed on the rhetoric they bring with them. Whatever story they are spinning continues and repeats.
In order to shift them into a new “place”, we need to shift them.
One tool for this is the BrainSpeed ball developed by Trent McEntire. Consider sending a care package to your clients or students ahead of your meeting. Take a few minutes to engage with the tool that lights up their brain AND their body. Invite them to notice and comment on how they feel. Now they are ready to receive what you have to offer.
Own the posture of “fun” and “unconventional” professional who does things like this to enhance the entire experience, to make space for real conversation, steeped in presence, and then watch the collective work deepen.
