Leisa Reichelt writes about ambient reassurance. She defines this as, “the experience of small, unplanned moments of interaction with colleagues that provide reassurance that you’re on the right track.”
These apparently trivial interactions “provide encouragement and.. help us to maintain self belief in those moments where we are liable to lapse into unproductive self doubt or imposter syndrome.”
She argues that we often get this kind of contact when we meet in person, and that we easily lack it when we are working remotely, as most of us have been doing this year.
“[I]n the absence of these tiny, human interactions, we’re more dependent on our own, individual self assurance. I never realised, until COVID and this long stretch of remote work, how dependent my self assurance was on ambient reassurance from others. In its absence, the natural peaks and troughs we experience – from confidence in our abilities to despair that we will never be good enough – feel more frequent and more extreme.”
Leisa reflects on her efforts to replace these small interactions when working alone – and it takes work.
And when we do meet online, we may need to think carefully about our priorities on the call. We’ve constantly found this year that the groups we work with are often craving the kind of reassurance that comes from simple social exchanges, and that rushing to the tasks-at-hand should often take second place to this.
Having a cat walk into shot is often welcome. When we’ve asked groups open questions about their experiences, participants often want to personal stories of hope and adversity. They intuitively understand that this kind of connection must come before ticking boxes for process. This is a big challenge to some of the more workaholic pattens of work that organisations easily default to.
(Photo by by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)