🤔Which is Better: In-Person or Online?

That's the wrong question. Here's the right one.

7:45 am. Mobile in one hand. Steaming hot coffee in the other. I start my morning inbox scroll. 

For no particular reason, I clicked on this Fast Company Article: 4 Reasons Hybrid Offices Won't Work. 

I realized after reading the article that the title is a bit of a misnomer.

The article isn't so much about hybrid offices as it is about the pros and cons of remote vs. in-person work. 

The author, Joseph Woodbury, CEO of storage company Neighbour, argues that face-to-face physical interaction is far better than online. For innovation. For collaboration. And for banding together to make societal change. 

He cites some fascinating studies that support his point. 

As people go back to work and school the debate is raging. Is in-person better? Or is online the future? 

CEOs, teachers, parents, creators - pretty much everyone has something to say on this topic. 

Sometimes it feels like the two are in a boxing ring. Duking it out. Until one is declared the victor. 

With so many gawd-awful online experiences during the pandemic, in-person has some pretty passionate fans. Like Woodbury.

Photo by Attentie Attentie on Unsplash

The problem is that the debate is misguided. Why? We are asking the wrong question.

In-person in and of itself is not a guarantee of successful learning and collaboration.

I think back through the many in-person work and learning experiences that I have had. 

At best, I remember the learning experiences abroad that forever changed my worldview. Team retreats where we came up with ground-breaking ideas that we could only have come up with together.

At worst, I remember years of sitting in classrooms bored out of my mind. Meetings that never seemed to end. Conferences that are designed to have you sit for 3 days until you can't bear one more speaker panel. 

Online left unchecked can be exhausting and harmful to our well-being.

We learned that the hard way. And we don't even know what the long-term consequences of the unexpected switch online will be. 

On the other hand, the pandemic gave me an opportunity to lead and participate in online learning experiences that were far better than a lot of in-person experiences. 

I wrote about one such experience with a cohort-based course Write of Passage in my article, Can Online Experiences be Better Than In-Person. One year on, I credit the course with helping me to create new professional opportunities. It also expanded my international network of collaborators, none of whom I have met in-person.

I learned that the real question is not if in-person or online is better. It is how to create meaningful engagement and connection whether it is in-person or online. 

Creating the conditions for engagement and connection in-person or online doesn't just magically happen on its own. It takes planning and skill. It takes a basic understanding of group dynamics, session experience design, and facilitation. 

The good news is that we don't have to start from scratch. 

There are tried-and-tested techniques for building safety, connection, and creating dynamic experiences that boost participation and engagement. Methods that are more in sync with how we learn and interact as humans. 

The pandemic has exposed the engagement gap in education and the workplace. 

We need more human interaction and meaningful connections whether we are together in-person or online. 

And that's what we need to focus on. 

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Gwyn Wansbrough is a Facilitator and Experience Designer based in Barcelona, Spain. She works with people and organizations around the world to create dynamic and empowering learning experiences online and in-person. She runs an online cohort-based course called Breakthrough Facilitation. She writes about facilitation, creativity, and learning in a weekly newsletter called The Quest. Subscribe here or visit www.gwynwansbrough.com to learn more.