The secret to improving your video meetings

We, as a generation, have had the steepest tech adoption curve in history, and thanks to the disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic has nudged into our lives, we have had to adjust to and accommodate solutions like video-conferencing and meetings without the necessary training or introduction to the tools out there.

Successful HUMAN-to-HUMAN interaction

Every meeting you have had so far in-person relied on your ability to connect with others and unless it was a blind date in pitch darkness, chances are your ability to share and hold eye contact with those you were meeting with was critical to the successful outcome of your interaction.

Eyes are the window to your soul and play an important part in conveying trust, focus, and willingness when interacting with others. For centuries we have asked people to "look us in the eyes" and say what they had to because we have collectively developed the skill to see whether we are being lied to or not.

Eyes and eye contact form part of essential body language which professionals from various industries use to spread their cause or message. From expressing love, anger, defiance, or disgust, eyes are key to engaging your audiences in multiple ways. If you haven't experienced this yet, ask a goalkeeper how important is it to read a penalty-takers eye movement or how in contrast the penalty-takers' ability to look away can help disguise his aim and score a winner.

So the question is "when it comes to digital and especially video interactions why do we not pay attention to eye-contact?" What is the decorum of or discipline for video interactions and how can we ensure we offer and receive the necessary eye-contact we need to have successful interactions in times like these?

VIDEO-CONFERENCING a new-normal

Social distancing and working/studying from home are new normals that might change the fabric of our society and workplaces. With much to unfold in these spaces, the future is very unpredictable, but one thing we can all be certain of is that video-conferencing and choosing to meet with others digitally/virtually is something we have to get used to.

Be it taking or giving a lesson online or negotiating the final price of a crucial contract, we have seen more forms of video conversations in the past 10 weeks than we have in the last decade. Unless you have been speaking to bots, chances are that most conversations are with humans on the other side of the screen and we are yet to get used peoples conduct in such interactions.

Eye-contact and VIDEO-CONFERENCING

If you found your last video conference lacked some substance or did not give you the satisfaction of an in-person meeting, chances are you have felt the eye-contact-gap that everyone seems to be suffering the most. While the hardware is yet to catch up, not much can be done until our devices have in-screen notch-less cameras that are hidden right behind the center of the very faces you are looking at.

While such immersive devices are yet to fly off the drawing boards of major device manufacturers, it is up to us to enhance our audience's experience by following this simple trick. "Just look into the camera when it's your turn to speak" and don't hunt for your own face or faces of those you are addressing. It might just give you the satisfaction of looking into the device's eye and in return, your audience will experience you as if you were indeed with them physically.

Constantly looking for yourselves or others in the meeting and looking away from the camera only ends up disconnecting us from the viewers, regardless of how good your wifi or data connection might be. Asking yourself, "how will looking at myself change the viewers' experience" will help you learn that it only allows you to admire yourself on screen.

Add to this the challenge of having multiple parties in your meeting and you are left hunting for who is speaking and how they look. All it takes is for you to think for a moment why sharing of screens forces all chat windows to get off the center stage. You will realize that the reason that is, is that designers of these apps and tools know that you have to focus on "what" the person is sharing rather than "how" they are saying it.

While some chat rooms have smart functions that help reposition your window or the main speaker's window right in the center of your display or right up to where the camera is featured on your device, but we are a considerable distance from these apps and devices being able to make up for the lack of genuine eye-contact that we so much crave as human beings. Some developers are also working on smarter AI driven solutions that will make it seem like everyone is looking at everyone else, but until then the key lies in your eyes.

Camera lenses: the all-seeing eyes you need to look into

Simply learn to fight the urge to look for a screen, especially when you are the one speaking. Every word you utter should be spoken looking at the camera and you will impart a heartfelt message to everyone in the meeting. If only one person in every chat every day can do this and promote it to others, soon we will begin experiencing realistic human connection even through our virtual interactions.

Perhaps the technology might catch up faster than our ability as humans to change our habits, but at least it is worth a shot. Our social and work-related interactions are never going back to the ways they were set in. Video and perhaps even virtual reality interactions are the future and our ability to be one with tech and give eye-contact to the eyes of our devices is a simple yet sure shot key to a faster and smoother transition to successful video and virtual interactivity.