From "What" to "Who". Connecting through Asynchronous Communication

It's easy to see technology primarily as a productivity tool. I often hear that the reason for adopting new tech is to maximise our output and efficiency.

What if the true transformative power of these tools lies not just in what they help us *do*, but in how they help us *connect*?

One of the topics I'm covering in an upcoming book is the opportunity to shift our mindset to view technology as a relationship-builder, especially in remote (including hybrid) work environments. When we approach apps and platforms as avenues for fostering meaningful human interaction, rather than task-completion aids, we open up new possibilities.

We start to evaluate tools based on how well they facilitate open communication, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging. (And look out for the instances when we might be shattering all of those!)

We design workflows that don't just increase output, but also increase opportunities for bonding, collaboration, and mutual understanding.

Of course, this mindset shift doesn't happen overnight. It takes intention, experimentation, and a willingness to prioritise connection above productivity.

Perhaps instead of asking ourselves "What can this tool do?" we should ask "Who can this tool bring me closer?"

For in the end, it's not the tool itself, but the quality of connection it enables that gives our work days texture, meaning, and joy. And that's a metric no productivity tracker can measure.

(In the spirit of Working Out Loud, this post was created by feeding ClaudeAI the draft for my chapter on tool junkies, asking to extract an unusual point and going through five prompts, to move past clichés. Then I cleaned up lots of genAI "tells" like, "In today's app-filled world". Then fed the text to chatGPT to generate the image, marked by LinkedIn with the "content credentials" button. )