Click. Click. Touch. Touch. Quick, come on. Coffee. Snack. Hello? I’ve got a few minutes, only if it’s quick. Like. LOL. Like. Comment. Touch.
Years ago, on an almost full subway in São Paulo, I sat next to a man in his sixties. I looked around: distant eyes, heads down, fingers on glass.
I smiled at him and said: “So close and so far.”
“Sorry?”
“We’re all so physically close here, and at the same time so far apart.”
We talked for a few minutes. He told me a bit about his life; I told him about mine. We left with the feeling that there is something more.
I’m not against technology. I work with it, I use it every day. Today I use artificial intelligence to write faster and think better. But the issue was never the device. It’s the values we develop when we trade eye contact for convenience.
When we wait for the post to “like” instead of hearing a friend’s voice, in that unique way of his. When both look at a screen and stop looking at each other.
And now there’s a new layer: ready answers in seconds, to any question. The risk is believing a quick answer can replace a deep conversation.
For anyone leading a company, this weighs. An important decision, a tough feedback, a negotiation with a partner: none of that is solved with a prompt.
You don’t have to drop everything and go hugging people (although that would be great). Start by:
- replacing a status meeting with a real conversation;
- listening to the other person until the end, hand off the phone;
- reading something longer than a feed;
- using technology to go deeper, not to skim the surface.
Answers to complex questions only appear when we recognize the complexity and give time and energy to exchange with other people.
I wish you many deep exchanges.
Do you say what you need to say in the way it needs to be heard? If this text poked at something, a conversation might be worth it. See how the Executive Communication sessions work or write to me.