What does an America’s Got Talent audition have to do with your remote team?

Hello, hello,

The other night, I was deep in an Instagram scroll when this America’s Got Talent audition crossed my path: watch it here.

Now, I’m a sucker for collective singing. It makes my heart swell. There’s something about people singing together that makes me feel like we can heal the world simply through the power of our voices.

AND then there’s Astrid. An absolute showstopper of a choir leader and a masterful facilitator. I won’t use this newsletter to break down why her facilitation is so good. I already did that over on my LinkedIn post.

But I will use this newsletter to drive home one very important point about how we gather remote teams and why you might be battling short attention spans, disengagement, cameras off, or mass breakout-room drop-offs:

We’re still treating too many of these gatherings as content delivery sessions.

But what people actually crave is an experience they want to be part of.

👉 Most organisations don’t have a content problem.
👉 They have a connection problem.

It’s time to turn your gatherings on their head.

Let this audition be your sign to bring more joy, more participation, and more shared experience into your remote meetings.

How do you start?
By tuning into what your team needs when you gather.

Here is a great prompt from Esther Perel’s At Work deck to kick this off…

Then follow up: What made it memorable? What did it feel like to be there?

And remember, there are many ways to open this kind of conversation. If your team naturally chats on Slack, use that. If you’re in Zoom, pop it in the chat or on Mentimeter and see what emerges.

Get curious first. Plan second.
That’s where the magic starts.

Curiously connecting,
Always,
Perle

p.s. I will be co-hosting a masterclass in facilitating big groups online in September. Join us.