Because of the shut downs, a yoga teacher’s business was struggling. She quickly signed up for a Zoom account and reached out to all her students.

She believed that her students came not only for the yoga, but also for the sense of community and she wanted to recreate that for her online classes.

The thought was good, however, the execution was not.

She decided to begin the Zoom class 30 minutes before the official start time of the class so that the participants could chat with each other, the same way that they used to do for in-person classes.

But online meetings don’t work the same as in-person ones. It’s not the same product and not the same experience.

In an in-person class, students could have private conversations with a few other students, but in an online meeting, the entire group would have to hear about your father’s health condition, your son’s employment situation, your jokes about your husband, etc. Not everyone in the class needs or wants to know. (Besides the fact that only one person can talk at a time during a standard meeting setup – without the ability to have break out sessions.)

So while, the yoga teacher wanted to provide a space for the pre-class chit chat, simply starting the meeting earlier doesn’t transfer that idea as cleanly as she would have liked.

Observing good ideas from other organizations, or even within your own, is great, but simply transferring those ideas is not. Think “translate” instead of “transfer.”

The concepts can remain the same, but the execution must change. Otherwise, it won’t work.

In 2021, it’s not the same product and not the same experience. For anyone. But it’s not the end of the world – it’s just a new world.