3 Important Lessons the Videoconferencing Environment has Taught Us About Inclusion

As we plan for the future, organizations and individuals will need to think about how they will transition as they move back to work. The pandemic has provided many of us the opportunity to learn how to work in environments where no one is physically present in the same space. While there are obvious benefits to physical presence, there are many benefits to my Zoom (the videoconferencing platform I am using) classroom that I want to bring back to my classes and meetings when they are face-to-face. I love that I can see every student’s name all of the time and I love that there is no way for anyone to hide in the back-row. I have been reflecting on some key lessons that I want to remember as my organization considers classroom options for the future:

1)   Know that your audience is in control. The virtual environment has taught us to communicate in shorter segments before giving our audience the chance to respond. The lack of control over your audience (not that you ever really had control in a physical setting) and the constant competition with the distractions they face in their home, are continuous reminders that your message needs to be focused on your audience at all times. Your audience has never been in more control of their visibility and presence. They can turn off their cameras and mute you. You have to give them a reason to listen.

2)   Create collaborative shared documents so that everyone can participate at the same time in the meeting in order to move the group towards a specific goal. Think about ways to leverage the power of having everyone in one place at the same time. Another collaborative function offered by most video platforms is the chat function. While the norm is generally not to talk when someone else is talking, the chat environment creates just this type of interaction.

3)   Recognize the power of a singular platform and consider hybrid environments carefully. Prior to the pandemic, we might have had meetings or classes where some participants called in on video or audio. It is easy to forget about the people that you can’t visibly see well or strain to hear. I remember and miss the physical energy of a group of people in the same room, focused on a common goal. But now when we are all on video, we all are missing that energy together. I want to be thoughtful about going back to hybrid environments where the people on video are watching others interact and feeling even more left out of the conversation. Now that we have built stronger organizational and individual abilities to meet using a variety of technological infrastructures, we need to carefully choose the meeting format that is most inclusive for everyone. And that might be video. 

Coming up in a few weeks, I will have spent a year at Georgetown University working entirely online. The last year has pushed me to think critically about how to engage students and colleagues online. As I begin to have more options for connections that include face-to-face, I want to continue to think critically about that engagement.

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Jeanine W Turner is a professor at Georgetown University in the Communication, Culture and Technology Program. She is also an affiliate professor in the McDonough School of Business. She researches and publishes about the impact of new communication technologies on organizations and is fascinated with the study of social presence. Connect with Jeanine on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter