Tactile Advantage

We were working on a project aiming to get more people involved in study groups as the discussion on the tactile advantage arose — can you achieve an equally good learning experience as a group online or is there a tactile advantage of being in the same physical room?

Since I run a digital agency, you might think I would say it’s possible, but the more I’ve thought about it since then — especially since we started working remotely — I’ve come to the conclusion that the notion of the tactile advantage is real.

Nothing beats it when you can touch each other, see each other in three dimensions, share pheromones and share the impressions from your surroundings. I don’t even have arguments for why. I just know. The tactile advantage is a fact.

This article is part of a series of more or less unfinished thoughts on digital transformation and team management, a collection of insights from my fifteen years as a team leader at the digital agency SthlmConnection. Originally posted on Medium.

Update 2021: During the pandemic, I guess we have all experienced the lack of tactility – for good or bad.