The Power of Being in the Same Room
Covid forced all of us onto Zoom and Teams whether we liked it or not.
We told ourselves:
“This is more efficient.”
“We can meet with anyone, anywhere.”
“We’re saving so much time on travel.”
Some of that was true. A lot of it came with a cost we’re still pretending not to see:
It’s nearly impossible to do real, creative, high-trust work together when we’re all trapped in tiny rectangles.
Brainstorming Over Video Is Mostly Performance Art
You know the script:
Someone shares their screen
Everyone else goes on mute
One or two voices dominate
Half the room is multitasking on a second monitor
We call it “collaboration” because there were 12 people on the calendar invite
Compare that to a good in-person working session:
People interrupt each other (in a good way)
You can see who’s thinking, who’s confused, who’s excited
Ideas bounce across the room instead of waiting their turn
Someone grabs a marker and draws the thing you’ve all been trying to say
The energy is different. The psychology is different. The outcomes are different.
Whiteboards Beat Slide Decks
A slide deck is a decision that’s already been made. A whiteboard is a decision being born in real time.
In-person, you can:
Sketch half-baked ideas without feeling like they need to be “presentation ready”
Cross something out right in front of everyone and pivot
Let people physically stand up, move, point, argue
Some of the best messaging, positioning, and campaign ideas I’ve seen didn’t start in Google Slides. They started as a messy, ugly whiteboard that should never see the light of day outside that room.
Remote tools try to mimic this—digital whiteboards, Miro, etc. They help. But they’re still missing the human cues that make the whole thing actually work.
Trust Is Built Faster in 3D
You can technically close deals over video. We all did it.
But face-to-face:
You read body language
You build rapport faster
You see how people interact with their own team
You can go deeper without everything feeling like a scheduled performance
That matters for:
Complex deals
Cross-functional projects
Sensitive topics (pricing, performance, conflict)
I’m not saying you need to fly for every discovery call. But for key relationships and pivotal initiatives, not getting in the same room is often a false economy.
So When Is Virtual Fine—and When Is It Not?
Virtual is great for:
Quick updates
One-on-one check-ins
Tactical, well-defined decisions
External calls where everyone already knows each other
In-person is worth the time and cost for:
Kicking off major projects
Deep-dive strategy and messaging work
Annual or quarterly planning
Relationship building with key customers, partners, or executives
If you’re trying to do vision, values, brand, or alignment work entirely over Zoom, you’re starting with a handicap.
Bottom line:
Use Zoom for what it’s good at: efficiency.
But if the work requires creativity, conflict, trust, or real alignment, there is still no substitute for being in the same room, interrupting each other, and arguing in front of a whiteboard.
