As Minnesota starts to open back up (with restrictions of course) and more people are getting vaccinated. Will we find it exciting to go back to the way of networking as it was a year ago? We have been creating new habits these past months. What once was normal business behavior to set out to a networking meeting a couple times a week has turned into screen time in small boxes. It takes weeks to develop an intentional new habit. We were all forced into one so I am curious to know what you will do with your new habit.
On one hand we had to adjust to new behavior and perhaps even learn new technology. We made it. So as the weeks and then the months went by we got pretty good at it. Some of us continued on with our current groups, some of our networks didn’t adjust and went by the way side, we even may have found some new groups that we otherwise wouldn’t have joined. It is the same distance from your laptop across town, across the state and across the country.
This lead to the start of forming a second new habit, casual dress-I mean really casual. Gone are the dress shoes, jackets, and slacks now we find ourselves in “nice” shirts as the entire ensemble. The business attire is perhaps still hanging in the closet or even waiting impatiently at the drycleaner!
This takes me back to the first paragraph. Will you go back to your old ways of networking or have you settled in? Are they an option? I know I am looking forward to being in person with colleagues, we were not created to go solo for this long. That said, it is quite nice to save time, gas and even money. So will sitting in the comfort of our “office” connecting across town, state and country remain? What will your networking look like?