ONLINE MEETINGS - THE GREAT EQUALIZER?

I was fortunate to hop on the virtual teaching, meeting, and coaching bandwagon before this fresh level of hell opened up and voluntold us all to work online all the time, always. Some of the obvious advantages you’ve no doubt discovered include delights such as: watching your boss getting stuck as a potato, seeing that work frienemy drop knickers in that all hands meeting, playing another lightening round of guess what JR is crunching directly into the mic today, and seeing how many distracting backgrounds you can cycle through in a 20 minute meeting.

The shift to WFH had certainly amplified the many inequities and broken systems within our society. Also, there are a lot of challenges inherent to running meetings on any virtual platform - a lot. Without denying that reality, I want to offer some silver lining opportunities to build equilibrium in this new virtual world for those of us that have jobs that are continuing online. As I meet with clients online for 1:1 leadership coaching or presentation prep, lead classes and workshops to the masses, and lead and attend meetings myself, let's dive into a few of the opportunities I see coming our way in this spud eat spud world. 

JUST HUMANS AT HOME

One of the surprising advantages of remote working and learning are the new little glimpses into our colleagues personalities. In many cases it’s Toto pulling back the curtain in Wizard of Oz and revealing that your boss collects all the Hummel figurines or Jean from accounting has birds, like the house flying around. It is humanizing and an opportunity to see each other more fully as complete people with lives beyond the cubicle. My mom always used to tell me to think like a scientist… so, what do the locations tell us about values, personality, humor, current mood, or realistic needs & challenges of working from home for this particular person?

• Those Zoom backgrounds are more than just an opportunity to manifest our undiagnosed adult ADHD - they can tell us a little bit about a person - either the real life background & their home set-up or their green screen game.  Why did Chadwick choose that Pacman background? Is that a photo of HR Patti skydiving with Clinton?  How many tchotchkes does Kimberly have on that one bookshelf?
• Where have they chosen to set up their wfh area today.  Have they set up in front of a bookshelf and you want a book rec! Maybe they are in the living room with animals and kids running around and you don’t know if you should be impressed or send help. Did you looooose your mind when Lo’s cat jumped into the camera view and can’t wait to chat @the cat later?

It is a chance to glimpse into the personality and homelife of these people we spend SO much time with and often know or notice very little about on a personal level.  Appreciate the vulnerability of allowing or being forced to allow each other to peer behind the curtain (read, don’t be judgy jerks). 

THE SAME SQUARE REAL ESTATE 

Depending on what platform you’re using and how many people are in a meeting (and how strict your org is about camera’s on) one of the GREATEST ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE WORK is that every square is equal. Yes. It’s true. If you have the option to choose a grid mode where you can see all the faces, do it. The platform doesn’t care if you’re the CEO or the newest intern, it offers the same rectangular real estate on the screen to everyone. You’ll be surprised who you never noticed gives all sorts of positive nonverbal feedback, who is talking the most, who hasn’t contributed at all. With that information (when appropriate in certain meetings) you can actively invite more sharing of space and building of equilibrium as discussed below. 

It also allows us to meet with people in different parts of the world. Allowing people who might have previously been excluded from meetings all together or were the only ones coming in virtually to feel just like one of the gang again. Everybody is in the same boat (except for those pesky time zone challenges) and is on a more level playing field of participation. 

A CHAT FOR US ALL

Oh, the chat feature. It is an incredible tool to take the temperature of participants and encourage everyone to share questions, ideas, and thoughts in a totally transparent way. The quieter members of the group can get equal voice time via chat in a way that often feels safer or easier to contribute to a convo than trying to get air time on a crowded in person or virtual meeting. It is a great way to check-in at the start of a meeting or wrap up and see where we’ve landed.  "Everybody type one word that tells me how you're feeling right now." "Let's take the temperature - type in how confident you're feeling about these next steps on a scale of 1-4."

For many people sharing out loud can feel more vulnerable than typing something into chat.  There is a familiarity, thanks to social media and texting, with typing and sharing thoughts, ideas, opinions via typing that feels different than speaking in public. It can also be a Godsend for individuals who are not native speakers of the language being used to converse and may be expending even more brain power to think, engage, & communicate in multiple languages in meeting after meeting.

ONLINE MEETINGS ARE REAL MEETINGS 

Remember back in the days of yore known as Pre-Pandemic when we did online meetings as sort of a lark and a few of us in the room got to lord our in the same roomness over their wifi freezing. That hierarchy and otherness no longer exists.  One client mentioned that she previously used to view online meetings as “less than” and something to be slightly disregarded - she’d multitask, turn her camera off - she’s gained a new appreciation for the previously unknown challenges of those who were working remotely for any number of reasons.  

As we enter this whole new world of virtually being our new norm, we have to reconsider the importance of this medium.  We can see and be seen - that’s freaking amazing technology that would blow our ancestors minds!  We can immediately have a convo that allows us to connect visually and share information, knowledge, and verbally exchange ideas in real time - amazing! This isn’t the third cousin twice removed of “real meetings”, this an innovative and amazing opportunity to stay connected with people we value and work with.  This level playing field of remote culture for all demands that we all adapt together. 

So, while the online meeting fatigue struggle is real y'all, so is the magical amazingness that it is possible and can allow us to do incredible things with other people. 

What unexpected benefits have you discovered as a result of working remotely? What have you learned about yourself and colleagues now that you’re working online?