Member-only story
How to Create Safety and Togetherness via the Chatbox
Town, Space, Floor
I have had this strategy pinned in my email from Priya Parker for a while. To counter the dislocation and disconnection we experience working online, Priya asks for three responses in the chatbox:
- the town or city where they were joining from
- the space where they were taking the call
- the floor material currently underneath them
I am in Mount Eliza, which is about an hour south of the city of Melbourne. Mount Eliza is on the Mornington Peninsula. I often work in a little office at the top of the garden at home. This is where I am writing now. Beneath my feet, I have a floor protector you put under an office chair.
A few more than just single word responses, sorry, I adjust to the medium!
Along with a range of other initial questions and early engagement, Priya suggests using this early in an online session.
This humble prompt (town, space, floor) punches above its weight. It reminds people they have a body, and so does every other guest. It locates them in the specificity of place. These are real people! With feet! It makes a potentially disembodied, anonymous group embodied, specific and real even when they can’t see each other.
