Building relationships in a digital world

Why face-to-face still matters
Written by James McDermott

Why face-to-face still matters

In March 2020, Covid 19 hit the UK and it hit hard. In the early days of the pandemic, society got an insight into the typical feelings of people who use drug and alcohol services. Anxiety, desperation, fear of the unknown and, most deadly of all, isolation. Many people experienced the sudden shift from time spent connecting with friends and family to being alone, vulnerable, and afraid.

Mobilising online

While society gradually adapted to this ‘new normal’, health and social care services had to mobilise and innovate almost overnight. What an amazing job they did: from ensuring prescriptions were delivered daily to pharmacies, to mobilising group work online to keep supporting those in our care. Here at EF we redesigned our group work programmes to ensure they were compatible with online delivery. We also made sure the people living with us had access to laptops and other forms of digital devices. This meant they could continue to take part not just in EF groups but various mutual aid support groups taking place around the world. Digital communications kept us all going.

Missing the small talk

However, digital presented new challenges. One of the hardest aspects of moving online was forming relationships and partnerships with new stakeholders. Without the small talk and conversations that typically take place outside meeting rooms (where people connect as individuals and forget about their lanyards), meetings took on a different shape. We moved straight to item one on the agenda without preamble. No doubt moving meetings and events online had benefits – saving time and keeping us all connected. However, we found doing back-to-back, on-line meetings all day long without a break, was and is, unsustainable. Eventually it started to take its toll on people.

Getting together in person

Now it is 2022 and we are back to some semblance of normality. Conferences and events are taking place in person but meetings appear to be staying online. While this saves time and travel costs, I still believe you can’t beat meeting someone face-to-face. So while I will do online meetings, I always offer people the option to meet in person. Why? Because something more profound takes place when people get together in person.

Recently we were at the DDN conference in Birmingham, reconnecting with old and new faces; cementing old partnerships and creating new ones. Online those conversations wouldn’t have taken place. So, in my view, while digital online platforms do serve a useful purpose, they will never beat the impact of a face-to-face meeting.

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