Proximity Matters

Standing in the security line at Hobby Airport this morning, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  A dear friend was just behind me in line.  We were both early for our flights and I got to hear about her fabulous trip to China that she'd recently completed, the trip to Denver for a special conference to share best practices that she was making today, and her daughter's new school record in the pole vault at Texas A&M. 

 

This afternoon, soon after I arrived at the gate for Southwest's 5:00 p.m. flight to Houston, another special friend sat beside me.  Our daughters have been friends since pre-K and our families have been friends forever.  This was the perfect chance to catch up on graduations (3), jobs (5), wedding (1),  half-marathons (2)...

Both of these friends are as busy as I am.  If we'd tried to schedule this priceless time together, we would have had to plan far in advance or face extreme difficulty.

 

But, since everything's connected, we benefited from being in the right place, at the right time, with many friends to see.

Proximity Matters

We just moved into our corporate headquarters on Monday, and we've already begun to realize productivity improvements.  As I'd indicated in an earlier post, our temporary office space persisted for 2 years.  Rather than depending upon email, phone calls and inter-office mail to many of our colleagues, we can now easily meet face-to-face. We no longer have to factor travel time into many internal appointments. After "corporate camping out", we are so grateful for storage space, opportunities to host more than one multiple party meeting and a quiet environment that is conducive to enhanced productivity. 

In the Periphery

How many times are we one conversation away from making a connection or reconnecting with those we've lost track of?  Recently, at two different events, I connected with individuals who I've known peripherally for years.  The connections were possible because of a question I asked in the first setting and my seating proximity in the second setting.   When we are aware and open to making connections, friendships can be ignited or rekindled.