Use scarcity to make face time matter more

Big conferences once ran weekly in tall urban towers, but attendance waned as time costs rose. Psychologists studied scarcity and attention: when something becomes rare, people value it more. A weekly in-person meeting soon felt like another chore, but a half-yearly summit sparked real engagement.

At 37signals, management meets the full team just twice a year. These days, no one drags their feet to the office. Instead, people arrive humming with ideas. During those rare gatherings, they brainstorm, laugh together, and build trust that carries into months of remote work.

Social psychologists note that limited social rituals heighten anticipation and focus. Scarcity narrows cognitive bandwidth to essentials. In one lab experiment, participants valued a novel snack more when it was served once than when it was offered daily.

By intentionally reducing face time, remote teams avoid the banal ‘meeting churn.’ They save the in-person magic for big decisions and celebrations, trusting async tools to handle everyday collaboration.

Start by listing all your regular in-person meetings and decide which can shift to async updates. Then plan just a few intentional gatherings each year, complete with tightly focused agendas. By treating each face-to-face as a special event, you’ll fuel motivation and clarity when teams convene. Try trimming one weekly meeting this month.