Normally, our images of community consist of shared tables for meals, after-work drinks at the local watering hole, conferences full of lanyard-wearing networkers and meetups with our peers. Thanks to COVID-19, those are increasingly distant memories for the MSP community and others as social distancing has us limiting our contact with others and avoiding just those sorts of situations.
While our typical, real-life settings for community interaction may be off-limits for the time being, the power of communities remain. Human interaction, despite taking place behind screen, is still happening and might be more important than ever.
Communal by Nature
Our species is not designed for isolation, and we generally crave at least some forms of human contact, no matter how introverted we may be. Although the current state of the world requires us to be a little more creative and unconventional in our methods, we need community now more than ever. Purely social interactions are relatively easy to adapt to social distancing, particularly when the weather is nice. Driveway dinners, walk-and-talks and video chats can at least partially replace what we’re used to.
But when it comes to talking shop, options are more limited. Your spouse, kids or roommate probably don’t care about the latest data breach or Windows 10 patch. They’d probably rather talk about celebrity gossip or the weather or even politics than HIPPA compliance or the merits of the NIST Framework.
The good news is those in the MSP community do have options other than lecturing their dogs on the importance of disaster recovery plans. Your peers are in the same boat, and they’re similarly looking for ways to connect meaningfully around topics the entire industry is facing.
Read the complete post at Channel Futures.
