Are we driving ourselves crazy? Virtual Meetings Overload in Times of Pandemic. How to get better at it? It starts with a self-reflection

It has been already 8.5 months. 8.5 months that I started in my new role as Market Leader for Philips in Latin America. Exactly 8 months that I heard that Covid-19 was getting here, in this side of the world. Friday 13th of March was the last day of people in the offices in Latin America ‘until second notice’. I did expect that ‘second notice’ would be max a month or two. Well, how wrong I was…

The news in Europe, mainly, about Brazil are very bad but in reality, Brazil is one of the few countries that moved faster in Latin America into flexibility. We managed to reopen our S?o Paulo office - with limited Covid-safe capacity - since 16th June when the Barueri region (where our office is) got into yellow zone (meaning, local regulations approved to open). Chile got into yellow zone in October, so, October 16th, we managed to open it in the same way. Mexico we opened just last week. All other offices in the region: still closed. Panama, getting now into yellow zone, should open soon. Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Blumenau (in Brazil): no clarity when we can open due to the moving target from red – yellow phases. Hopefully by early 2021 we can open all our offices again.

In a short research we just did, results show that our teams got pretty used to the situation, but that majority is missing the office. 67.2% see a future better balanced between homework & office work and this result was well balanced between age groups (< 40 years old, 68.9% want to return to the office / 63.3% of the 40+’s). And the underlining reasons were very interesting:

• Working from home: teams feel that they can focus better (59.8% of the respondents), have more effective meetings (47% of the respondents), have more flexibility to manage own agenda (75.4% of the respondents) and, as main benefit, 90.7% are happy with avoiding commute (something not minor in our large cities in Latin America).
• Above were the key benefits, but there were also some key challenges of working from home:  14.7% struggle to keep motivated/feel lonely, 23.1% fell it is harder to collaborate, 29.5% fell less connected to the team & manager, 50.8% miss networking (informal chats / break out moments) and 56.1% think it is hard to unplug.
• 69% believe individual work is better done at home but 44.5% believe it is better to collaborate in an office environment (only 18% see home office good for team collaboration / the rest, is in between office & home mix, with regards to team collaboration). 55% believe that 1-1’s are as effective from a home or office environment.

What stands out for me from this research is what we hear from others in different industries and locations: to collaborate, nothing better than being together, interacting, connecting, building relationships. I face the same myself. For 1-1 or small group interactions, I think the home office situation is working well. But for creativity, team building, trust & networking building, it is harder. I personally believe a future where we will have a better balance of home & office working spaces, and our internal research pretty much confirms that this is what our teams also see.

Considering this, as leaders, we need to prepare ourselves for making our offices (or working spaces) of the future a place that enables engagement and collaboration. Our trial in Latin America will be with our Argentina office that needs a renewal and our goal with this renew is indeed to ensure the office space to become better for team collaboration & interaction. What some in the real state industry call ‘Club & Hub’ concept – hubs where people go to meet & interact.

A second thing that stands out to me is the difficulty that people have to unplug. The difficulty to cooperate concerns me but also concerns me the fact that we may be driving ourselves crazy online. If I accept every single meeting I get invited to these days, I work from 4am to 9pm non-stop. And unfortunately, is not a joke or an overreaction. I started asking to our teams around but also to colleagues from other companies and industries and it seems to be an issue cross the board.

I have been reading a lot about both subjects. The balance home-office work and how the new workspaces will look like but also reading a lot about the virtual overload that many are feeling.

With regards to returning to the office… more to come. I believe many are still very concerned to return without a vaccine. And in many countries, for sure in Latin America, we even can’t. Either due to local regulations or due to basic things like, schools not yet back to normal, making it harder for many parents to leave the home office situation at this stage.

With regards to the virtual overload, I do want to make a personal reflection and challenge whoever is reading this article to do the same. As Michael Jackson would say ‘it starts with the person in the mirror’.

Am I arranging meetings because they are really adding value or just to keep me busy (meaning, giving me the wrong feeling that I am adding value)?

• In the past 8 months, I have been to meetings where literally, literally, the person in the other side was reading the power point he/she was showing. Why? Why? Why? I can read but still the other person felt that he/she had to help me out with it. How many hours could have been avoided wasting both of us time and instead, doing something of more added value? So, question number 1: could an email replace this meeting? If yes, GO FOR IT! Always.
• I had so many days in the past months where I literally had no time for a natural break. Where I switched off the camera to be able to eat during a meeting. I lost the counts of how many 4 am meetings I had. Really? Unfortunately, yes. Am I doing the same to others? Question number 2: am I respecting others time? Am I scheduling things in insane times for others? Occasionally it can happen, but when it is structurally, something is wrong for me to arrange it and for the person to accept it (of course, unless you accepted a global job out of your time zone….something that we are seeing more and more lately )

The big group discussions I am organizing are adding value to the team/business involved?

• I noticed this issue in the first months of the quarantine. First step was: send info in forehand for people to prepare for the discussion and make clear who isn’t demanded for the meeting. But still, when the group is too big, it can be hard… so, now, more and more, I am driving smaller groups (working cells) discussions. But for this, the team needs to be mature enough to let go and sometimes, let for others in the team to decide for them. Question number 3: are you ready for letting others deciding somethings (which things) for you? Am I?

Do I really need to join this meeting? Am I challenging when I don’t have to?

• In the past months I have been challenging many meetings. Some people just invite 100’s of people and complain when you are not in a meeting. Really, do you need everybody in? What can be, again, replaced by an email? What can be decided in a small group? Question number 4: challenge once, twice, ten times – am I really needed in this meeting? If not, be vocal about it and simply press ‘declined because … ’. If we don’t have these courageous conversations, we, as a team, don’t get better. I am confident about it. We are all learning what works/doesn’t work in this ‘new normal’ so now is the time to challenge what is/isn’t working. We will evolve together.

Am I organizing this meeting to feel under control (= micromanaging) the situation?

• I learned this great technique during Covid. TIGHT-LOSE-TIGHT. There are many people in very difficult personal situations. I applaud people managing work and home schooling, for example. This technique helps a lot with it. It is all about TIGHT setting of expectations. LOSE on the how things get done. TIGHT on tracking/following up deliverables. Question number 5: am I being an enabler or a micromanager? If the second, revisit your priorities asap.     

Am I getting closer or further away from the customer or from my end goal, as a professional, with this virtual overload behavior?

• This for me is the biggest question of all. When we start making ourselves crazy internally instead of externally, something is strongly wrong. I have been to an external conference that was supposed to be between CEO’s of Latin American companies to discuss the future of the region and, in the 1 hour event, seriously, the first 18 minutes were about the organizers praising each other about how great they were. Question number 6: it is not about you; it is about the end customer/user and how to better get to him/her – am I 100% clear about it in this meeting? If not, cancel it… better than waste people’s time. If your work doesn’t deliver added value to the end customer/user – directly or indirectly – something is very wrong. Challenge this continuously is my ‘new normal’ motto. By the way, it applies also for reports...

In the end, we all want the same: to give our best and deliver added value in whatever we do. But what Covid pandemic teaches us is that it is not about being busy but about delivering value so we must question again and again – is this meeting/report delivering value? Can an email deliver more/the same in less time? Can a quick call/chat deliver more/the same in less time? Can someone else do it on my behalf better/the same? Is this really needed?

I certainly learned a lot in the past months : call more often, the TIGHT-LOSE-TIGHT technique, plan ‘tech breaks’, break big discussions in small working cells, less multitasking. But there still a lot to improve (better breaks planning, shorter meetings, more challenging of what isn’t working, …).

If we all challenge ourselves and the teams around us more, I think we can leave this pandemic much stronger and much more efficient than we started. Virtual work is here to stay. So, let’s make it awesome instead of overwhelming. I am up to be challenged to get better. Are you up to the challenge too?