The rapid digitalization of the workspace has really flipped things upside down. Especially those people that are not on each other’s team, and usually do not cross paths while working, should be able to meet online, the way they used to in the office. Sidenote: include online areas designated to casual chats in which – all – employees from different departments can meet. Keep it neat and allow people to understand where to go for formal conversations and where for informal chats. In order to create a successful virtual water cooler, it is necessary to define and demarcate communication channels, and clearly distinguish the (in)formality of each channel. Between a nearly constant drip of emails, sequent video calls, Slack exchanges and WhatsApp group talk, we bounce around inefficiently and end up entangled in the middle. Today’s average office environment does not exactly suffer from a lack of communication channels. This allows the water cooler moment to occur in a more natural way. So, when recreating this environment, make sure to leave the choice for a chat and the choice for a discussion partner up to the people. The aim of a virtual water cooler should be to facilitate (not recreate) water cooler moments and conversations. In order to encourage human interaction, forcing things onto people is certainly not going to work. It allows a state of mind that improves knowledge sharing and will therefore help people in your organization to achieve better results. The perfect environment in which food for thought can be coined, complex matters can be processed, and new ideas can be tossed. Water cooler moments transform a formal situation into an informal and casual setting. “Teamwork makes the dream work”, right? Cheesy quotes aside, relationships among employees really are fundamental when working together to achieve a common goal. First, let’s ask ourselves why we would need to put effort in recreating these seemingly insignificant and mundane moments? Well, believe it or not, but they are the glue that keeps your company together since they provide and represent the human connection between employees.
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