SFL Friday -- Human Contact Is Good.

Hi kids, can you believe it's actually Friday?

What a week.

RIP Judge Pineiro.  There are some wonderful tributes over at Rumpy's -- take a look.

Congrats to Carlos Deupi, the new President of the Miami Finance Forum:

The Miami Finance Forum (MFF), a non-profit trade association of investment and finance professionals in South Florida, today announced the election of Carlos Deupi as the MFF’s new Chairman. Mr. Deupi, a corporate lawyer at the law firm of Hogan Lovells US LLP in Miami, will serve for a one-year term beginning in January 2011.

Carlos is a heavy dude and we wish him well in leading the MILFF.

What else?

I love this article about the importance of face to face contact in building business relationships.  The authors recount a recent study reported in Psychology Today:

Researchers instructed each team to bargain entirely through e-mail, but half the subjects were secretly told to precede the negotiation with a brief getting-to-know-you chat on the phone. The results were dramatic: Negotiators who first chatted by phone were more than four times likelier to reach an agreement than those who used only e-mail. In the study, which appeared in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, subjects who never spoke were not only more likely to hit an impasse, but they often felt resentful and angry about the negotiation.

Here are the tips they suggest for creating stronger bonds with your colleagues:

1. Assess who is important to you in your professional life, those people with whom you will need a relationship strong enough to weather any storm.
2. Consciously monitor how much e-mailing, texting or tweeting you rely on for building these relationships.
3. Make sure that at least once a month you either speak with these people by phone or see them in person! The latter is better, even if it entails travel.
4. When you do connect in person, leave enough time to communicate in greater depth so that it really strengthens your relationship. Enjoy yourself when you get this chance to be up close and personal (it is contagious).
5. When you are in human contact, keep any electronic devices far enough removed so that these devices do not interfere with the conversation. Even the slightest eye movement to see who is texting, e-mailing, etc. gives the other person the impression that someone else is more important to you.
6. Find media-free time each week to counter your addiction to staying connected online. You will probably find out you like it.
7. Stay vigilant in your efforts; technology is amazing, but it is also seductive.

Face to face interactions are good, apparently -- who knew?

Speaking of seductive, I'm off for some early windsurfing because...well, just because.

Have a great weekend!