Face to face is over rated. You're thinking about video calls all wrong.

You think that you can’t have good working relationships over video. Go on, admit it. You think that really there is nothing like quality time, face to face, and this is never going to change. 

For a long time, I did too, but I’ve changed my mind. I think, instead, that we don’t have good video calls, because we don’t believe they can be constructive, and therefore we don’t really try - so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

I work one day a week for a homeware and accessories brand called Elizabeth Scarlett. I run the marketing strategy and act as a sounding board on all key strategic decisions for founder, now firm friend and total girl boss, Lizzie. There are a team of 5 of us and we have a cute office come show-room in North London. I’ve never been there and until the most joyful brunch this week, I’d never met two of the team in person. Despite that, I can say with confidence I have a highly effective role within the business. 

Google Hangouts are central to how we work together. There is a key difference in the way Lizzie and I use video calls, to the way you might.

They way I think you work at the moment is with the focus is on the big half day face to face sessions, using video calls to update in between. In this world, calls are functional, by definition, inferior to the noble IRL workshop, and a chore. 

For us, our calls are our total focus. We do have time together whenever I am in London, and it’s very useful, but we spend much of this time just hanging out - and leave the critical business to the calls. 

Making calls the focus, not face-to-face meetings, changes the expectations and dynamic in fundamental ways. 

We bond on video and not just over coffee. When Lizzie and I ask each other how we are doing in these conversations we answer very honestly, because we know this is important time to touch-base. I am conscious that she can’t seen my non-verbal body language so I think about how I can be particularly explicit in demonstrating my mood and mindset. 

We present work and make big decisions, not just track the status of projects. Using Google Drive we can work up proposals and collaborate from other side of the world and then use video forums to make conclusions. 

We move fast. I love hearing how your weekend was, and chatting about your outfit, and making cups of tea at the start of a meeting. Hell, I am even a little fond of the inevitable 15 mins where the tech doesn’t work. It’s all part of the ride. We have none of that. We don’t commute, we can talk in our pyjamas, we can look at the performance data as we discuss what we are going to do next. It means we get so much done. In sixty mins we can get a typical London day’s work done, and I really believe that. 

What would happen if you didn’t seen video calls as the touch-points in between face-to-face workshops, but the focus of your working relationships? Might you approach them a bit differently? And if you did, might you get a whole lot more out of them?