There doesn’t have to be a qualitative difference between working together face-to-face and working together online with the support of new digital ways of working.

A actual meeting or workshop is not always possible to arrange. Working in various timezones, overbooked schedules, environmental concerns, travel costs, and force majeure are just a few of the causes.

It may be highly annoying as a professional in charge of a project or a question in an organisation to be unable to schedule an initial or follow-up meeting. If your job must be completed at the same time and in the same location as others, it prevents businesses from being as nimble and flexible as they might and should be.

The good news is that, with to advances in technology, many workshops and meetings may now be rebuilt to produce similar, if not superior, results. It all starts with considering the meeting as a whole.

What do we hope to accomplish as a team? Having 20 people sit in the same room for two hours and listen to presentations statically is rarely the most effective approach. Converting a regular meeting to a video conference seldom yields the greatest outcomes. Instead, reorganising the meeting structure to be more digitally enabled can actually improve the end outcome and better utilise everyone’s time.

There is always a barrier to breaking into new methods of functioning. However, focusing on the possibilities and positive impacts of cooperating in a digital arena is a smart approach to go about it:

Working together can begin asynchronously, and there is no need to find a time that is convenient for everyone because everyone is in their own location. Where necessary, video conferencing or physical meetings can be incorporated into the process.

Everyone can speak up in a digital environment. Some people require extra time and space to think out their ideas.

When travel expenses and environmental concerns are not a problem, more individuals may be recruited to collaborate on critical issues.

There’s no reason to rush a decision on something that would be best left undone. The job can continue the next day or week without causing conflict or requiring a re-meeting.

The meeting or workshop facilitator has time to go over everyone’s views and suggestions and follow up on them.

So, is it time to reconsider the old adage that a face-to-face meeting or workshop always produces better results?