Sent from Amsterdam.

To listen, click ▶️ on the postcard.

Here’s the transcript of Thimon’s message:

Hello. This is Thimon De Jong from Amsterdam for the CultureLab Audio Postcards. So, here’s my two minutes. The advice I have for all the people that are working from home in these semi lockdown times is to invest time and energy in human connections.

Now, I know we all have phone calls and Zoom and Skype meetings. But the question is how can we keep these as human as possible? Because most of us have too many of these days and we want to get them over as fast as possible.

And the problem is then is that we stick too much to the facts.

So what should we do? And this is one for the meeting leaders out there. Start your digital meeting by making a human connection first. It only has to be two or three minutes, but make a human connection first. Meeting leaders: ask a personal question first before you deep dive into the business. So ask a question. like: How are you doing? Tell me something good. Tell me something bad about your at-home situation. Give me your movie television series tip that helps you through the day and make a little round.

You will see with this, you have made a human connection and the rest of the meeting will be actually more productive and there will be more of a connection there. The second tip and last one – again for the leaders, managers out there is to check in with your team members individually as well. So not these big meetings where you have 10,20 people on the screen but check in with them individually as well, preferably with a video call and preferably a few times a week.

It only has to be a few minutes but do that – you’ll keep that human connection and that will help us get through these lockdown times and beyond. Good luck.