How to Do Small Talk in a Pandemic

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

The other day, a colleague mentioned an exchange he’d recently had with a stranger at a wedding. It was a small talk situation and, of course, the pandemic became the ice-breaker subject. The stranger sighed. “I’m so tired of talking about this,” he said.

How do we do small talk now? my colleague asked.

The answer, I think, is the same as it ever was: 1.) Be curious; 2.) Listen.

To quote a former colleague, the wonderful Ross McCammon:

It might help to approach the task like an interview. At first, your conversational partner should feel like a subject. Something to understand, to investigate. Put them in the spotlight and give them the space to spool out their own narrative.

And that’s it. Get out of your own head, and connect by allowing yourself to feel interested.

After a million months of pandemic, we‘re all a bit out of practice with socialization. But we’ll get there. Promise.