Water Coolers and Weak Ties: Keeping Informal Networks Alive in a Virtual World

Speaker: Diana Hong, Managing Director, CRA, Inc.

What the research and our experiences show is that during virtual work, our networks narrow down - our strong ties get stronger and our weak ties get weaker. Even within a team, we find that our day to day fills from more meetings with those whom we closely collaborate with and little to no interaction with others we used to see in hallways, break rooms, cafeterias, near the printer or coffee machine. But research also shows creativity and career opportunities come from casual collisions - from the expanded network beyond immediate connections or people you know in passing. So how do we reconcile this? We're in an era of work that means it's about time to better leverage hybrid or fully remote work environments. In this session, we'll cover pointers from academia, real-life examples, and suggestions for organizational communications leaders through presentation, exercises, breakout sessions, and live polling.