A valued employee has asked for a transfer to another division. After he flips the phone closed, he sits down to wait for his plane and starts to brood. He listens to the messages that have piled up since he phoned in three hours earlier. The chief financial officer of an international consulting firm holds a cell phone to his ear while waiting for the shuttle from New York to Boston. Often, a brief exchange is all that’s needed to clear up a painful misunderstanding, dispel worry, restore momentum, and spark new and creative thinking. Although it’s a deep encounter, it doesn’t always require a great deal of time. The meetings are supplemented-but never replaced-by chat rooms and other e-communication.Ī human moment requires only two elements: people’s physical presence and their emotional and intellectual attention. A sign of the remarkable level of trust these groups have achieved is that the retailers even share financial information in this setting. Example:Ī consultant to furniture retailers started face-to-face discussion groups of noncompeting retailers from different cities to help these independent business people overcome the increasing isolation of their work.
To reap the full benefits of the wired world-for the efficiencies of electronic communication not to be overshadowed by its limitations-you have to invent ways to keep the human moment alive. If you are left off the distribution list for an important e-mail, you might shrug it off once-but what if it happens again? Such problems are enough to make good people begin to wonder whether they should leave. Even lesser problems can have long-term effects. More and more people get copied on the running argument, and soon the entire unit is embroiled in a hostile exchange. A curt e-mail message can lead to a defensive response. This toxic worry leads people to indecision-or bad decisions. When the human moment fades from the workplace, a paralyzing anxiety fills the vacuum. The sender was stunned when he learned of this reaction: he knew the client was an expert in the field, and his message was intended to be ironic. Example:Īt a key juncture in a real estate deal, the developer’s counsel e-mailed the bank’s counsel with this message: “Of course, your client won’t understand what we’re talking about.” The client read the message, which had been mixed in with other documents, and became furious. E-mail in particular robs people of the subtle cues-body language, tone of voice, facial expression-they often need to understand complex messages fully. Good people leave-and the ones who stay are unhappy.įor all its virtues, electronic communication can be dangerous insofar as it marginalizes the human moment. When ambiguous and confusing communications abound, trust withers, anxiety and mental fatigue flourish, and bad decisions ensue. Its absence can lead to organizational chaos. For businesses, the human moment is no less vital.
For individuals, the benefits of the human moment include changes in brain chemistry that promote emotional well-being. There is an authentic psychological connection that happens only when people are physically present in the same space-this is known as the human moment. As a result, they are often in touch with customers, suppliers, and each other more frequently.įrequency is no substitute for depth, however. Electronic communication gives workers more options, options that don’t require them to be in the same physical location.