The importance of face to face meetings

I've been spending this week in Korea and apart from having been a great experience in general it has also made me reflect again over the importance of actually meeting face to face and how much more you can accomplish when sitting in the same room together. Video conferences for sure provide a valuable tool in the day to day business but it seems to me at least that we to a large extent have developed a belief that it somehow can replace an actual f2f meeting.

And while it would be great if that could be the case it is far from it, especially if you are dealing with other cultures than your own as your are missing out on so many other aspects of the communication. In addition, it provides an unparalleled way of getting the gathered people to focus on the tasks at hand and allows for much easier correction of potential misunderstandings as most people are much more reluctant to voice a question during a video conference than compared to being present in the same room.

A few years back I was approached by a team member on a project who struggled to come to a final agreement with a supplier on the terms and conditions of the contract. "We've been going back and forth for almost two months without coming to an agreement". When asked if we actually had sat down together in the same room to discuss it the answer was no. A meeting was arranged and the contract was signed within a week.