Each year, the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words to its collection. Such gems as “YOLO”, “selfie”, “hangry” have recently being accepted as part of our official 21st century vocabulary. Maybe the next edition will include a raft of lockdown lingo – we’re on a coronacoaster, coronadosing on quarantinis that we sup during locktail hour… or my new favourite phrase… Zoom Doom!
Many in the world of organisational behaviour and psychology have tried to analyse and establish the origin of this new phenomenon! Here’s my attempt at distilling it all down to three main areas:
Head, shoulders… no knees, no toes – we’re only seeing about 20% of a person, meaning that we have to concentrate harder than we realise to make up for the lack of crucial non-verbal cues, from body language and more discreet movements, through to waving our hands around to make a point, that we get in a face to face meeting. Even more concentration is needed to ensure that those who are naturally quieter and reflective don’t disappear in a sea of faces, and it’s all too easy to underestimate the drain on our energy in keeping a meeting going through troughs of silence. And of course, the bit of the person that we see is causing a new-found source of stress as we turn our videos on, fiddle with our fringes, check our roots, and generally try to make our lock-down hair look acceptable.
Error 404 – perhaps one of the most frustrating things about zooming is an unstable internet connection causing time lags (like a really cheap movie where image and sound are out of sync), frozen screens (usually at the most unflattering moment), and dropping out of a call all together (allegedly). It’s certainly true in my case that people management requires a completely different skill set to anything vaguely tech related, and that, in itself, compounds the problem – though I’m proud that to date, I’ve only “lost” one person, trying to get people out of a break-out room. Along with new technology, we’ve also had learn a whole new world of comms and meetings etiquette.
Get back in the room – I’m sure you’ll all have your own answer to this equation…
6th zoom of the day + hour long agenda + 15 delegates + death by powerpoint = ??
What might ordinarily be a routine meeting becomes more testing in a virtual world. Have you resisted the temptation of half-listening while scrolling through Facebook or clearing out your emails? Or worse – are you wired for sound but actually nowhere near your desk? We’ve seen people hang out washing, make bread, and bounce around on an exercise ball. If you’re not fully engaged, you can’t fully contribute, the meeting will, inevitably drag, and your performance and efficiency will dip as you miss key discussions and actions.