👥 Meetings and human relationships

Improving human relationships is sometimes used as a justification for meetings, and face-to-face meetings can certainly improve human relationships.

But more generally, we can say that positive interactions improve human relationships. And the more positive interactions we have, the stronger our relationships will be.

Modern workflow tools provide a tremendous opportunity for human interactions at a scale that is impossible to accomplish with meetings. They provide transparency. The stream of activity is visible to all, and anyone can participate (or ignore) at any time. There are so many more opportunities for positive interaction than a weekly, or even daily status meeting.

However, it is necessary to have a culture that encourages and promotes transparency and frequent, positive interactions. It starts with the example of those at the top. Do you provide positive feedback, give helpful suggestions, and ask thoughtful questions in the course of work? Do you follow the development activity and use the communication features of the workflow tools such as Issue/PRs/project boards comments?