Reconnecting in Person: Our Post-Covid Knowledge Sharing Session

While the pandemic is not officially over, many aspects of our daily lives have returned to a semblance of normalcy. One of these changes is the growing number of companies that are now operating on-site with hybrid working models, where employees can choose how many days they are willing to work from home. At Nul Tien, we are no different, and we have taken advantage of live human interaction within the office by organizing social gatherings and co-working activities. These events have given us the opportunity to discuss business, technology, and other topics that affect our day-to-day operations.

Not long ago, we all lived in the virtual space of our devices, attending numerous meetings via Microsoft Teams and flooded with messages and sync-ups. But now, as we slowly return to the office, some of our old habits are coming back into place. At our Belgrade development center, we recently held live knowledge sharing sessions where we collaborated with our colleagues from the Netherlands. In this post, we’ll share our experience and highlight the key points and advantages of live knowledge sharing. So, stay tuned!

1) More spontaneous and natural interactions: In live sessions, people can communicate more naturally and spontaneously, as they can pick up on body language and nonverbal cues that are difficult to capture in virtual meetings. In virtual meetings, people often need to take turns speaking and may have difficulty reading nonverbal cues, leading to a more formal and structured communication style. This can sometimes hinder creativity, brainstorming, and open discussion. During the pandemic, we didn’t have a chance to use our senses for these kind of things, so our navigation in that sense is much better where humans can create much clearer picture of the topic that is presented as well as overall vibe. On-site event can give us the ability to have more natural and spontaneous interactions in live sessions and also can lead to more engaging and productive discussions, as well as stronger relationships and a greater sense of community among participants.

2) Better opportunities for networking and relationship building: Live sessions provide better opportunities for attendees to network and build relationships with each other, which is important for fostering collaboration and innovation, it can be difficult to get to know colleagues and build relationships, as interactions are often limited to work-related topics and can feel impersonal. There is a chance that you might changed your working environment in the middle of pandemic, so getting to know your team members was quite challenging. These live sessions enable you to talk with your team members as well as other participants and share ideas in more personal manner and also gain better and deeper understanding of the topic. Additionally, live sessions provide opportunities for attendees to meet and network with colleagues from other departments, locations, or teams. This can help to break down silos and promote cross-functional collaboration, which can lead to more innovative and effective solutions.

3) Enhanced engagement and attention: Live sessions tend to be more engaging and attention-grabbing, as participants are physically present and can focus solely on the event without the distractions of their devices or other external factors. During the pandemic with limited movement our bodies, our attention span as well as normal body function affected our interaction with limited capacity, therefore heightened stress, anxiety as well as overall health impact affected our interactions, so most of the time, majority of people were attending these sessions passively, by not engaging into them, checking phone, email or social media therefore their engagement was quite low, while live session gave us more breathing room and thus overall interactive experience.

4) More immersive and hands-on learning experiences: It’s all about engagement! Our knowledge sharing session took the form of presentation and live coding session, so mix of the activities were included to imprint the knowledge to our colleagues. Doing only talking sometimes can evaporate fast, so having coding session live after the talking, gave the opportunity to our employees to see what has been presented to them and also gave them opportunity to ask questions and kind of identify with the material presented to them. Overall, live knowledge sharing sessions provide a unique opportunity for hands-on learning experiences that can be difficult to replicate in virtual settings. By engaging with material in a more tactile and interactive way, participants are more likely to retain information and apply it in their work.

5) Improved communication and alignment: One of the biggest advantages of live knowledge sharing sessions is the opportunity for improved communication and alignment within teams and organizations. This is particularly true when it comes to feedback and developing a shared understanding of goals and objectives. In a live session, participants have the opportunity to ask questions, clarify expectations, and provide feedback in real-time. This can be especially valuable when working on complex projects or initiatives, as it allows for immediate course correction and adjustment. Additionally, live sessions provide a forum for developing a shared understanding of goals and objectives. By bringing team members together in a live setting, everyone has the opportunity to provide input and feedback, which can help to create a more cohesive and aligned team. This is particularly important when working on cross-functional teams or projects, where different perspectives and expertise need to be brought together in order to achieve success. At the end the ability to provide feedback and develop a shared understanding of goals and objectives is a critical component of effective collaboration. Live knowledge sharing sessions can help to facilitate this process by providing a forum for real-time communication and alignment.

We came to the end of our blog post! I hope that you learned something new, and gained some valuable information from different perspective, we tried to pass on our experience from on-site happenings within our offices. Please note that some parts of the world are still affected with Covid restrictions, so please be aware of the policies that was provided by your local governments as well as your employee! Stay safe and see you next time!

Author: Alen Demirović (DevOps Engineer)