Zoomed Out! Thriving in an Online-Only World

These past weeks have been challenging. As the world struggles to cope with a virus that has spread faster than anything in living memory, many of us have been thrust into a new way of living and working. We have new constraints on our private lives, and our work has been severely disrupted.

As I write this, I am acutely aware that almost everyone who reads this will be, like me, amongst the most privileged and fortunate of people living on the planet. So, I want to acknowledge upfront that what I will discuss here is primarily about the impact that COVID-19 has had on the work of educated, professional class people that have seen dramatic changes in the way they work, live, and play. And, while our problems are real and cause lots of pain and suffering, they are nowhere near as severe as those less fortunate than us for whom this pandemic is likely to cause immeasurable damage for years to come.

Many of us are saying, after hours of back-to-back video calls, “I’m Zoomed out!” This is a genuine expression of mental and physical exhaustion that comes from being on countless Zoom calls, day after day, for weeks on end. We get fried. Our brains—wired to interact with others in a three-dimensional, in-person world—are overloaded with inadequate, two-dimensional stimuli from a glowing laptop screen.

The “suddenly remote” world has thrust us all into new ways of trying to collaborate, communicate, and connect that were primarily the domain of freelancers, workers-from-home and the odd future-of-work organization prior to “the virus.” Everyone has now gravitated to new ways of connecting remotely by video call using Zoom or Skype or FaceTime or whatever, trying desperately to re-establish some sense of connection with our colleagues and clients. We are all trying to get our work done and keep the lights on until we return to some level of what we used to call normal.

A WAY FORWARD

At DesignThinkers Group, our business was immediately and drastically impacted by the coronavirus. Like most of our fellow design thinkers, facilitators, and consulting practitioners, we realized that leveraging technology to help teams collaborate virtually would become a necessity for the “new normal” of a pandemic-impacted world. The crisis suddenly thrust us into a reality where facilitating co-creation sessions, helping leaders establish strategic plans, teaching people how to think like designers, and everything we use to do in person suddenly needs to be done remotely.

“Adapt or perish” is the ultimatum our businesses face.

After some initial shock, navel gazing, and confusion, we quickly realized that we are perfectly equipped to deal with this unprecedented situation.

“I wonder if there is a structured methodology to solve complex, multi-stakeholder problems that we might use,” we mused.

“I wonder if there is a structured methodology to solve complex, multi-stakeholder problems that we might use,” we mused. Aha! Yes, indeed there is: it’s called design thinking. And what do you do first in design thinking? You do research. You ask questions. You listen. And, you develop empathy for the people for whom you are designing solutions.

So, that’s exactly what we have been doing for the past four weeks: Researching and connecting with customers, peers, and colleagues across the globe.

LEARNING BY DOING

What lessons have we learned so far about how to work and collaborate in an online-only world of work? We finally made time to sit down, take a deep breath, and articulate some of our main takeaways. With every webinar, online design session, large scale interactive meeting, and even our internal team meetings, we continue to learn and iterate. We hope some of these lessons will help you up your online game.

David Kester was a presenter during our march 25th webinar. He explained, among others things, that we should all take a creative approach to our “new world” — envision something new!

?Time dilation effect: Be generous with the amount of time allowed

You simply can’t get the same collaborative productivity from working online as you can get from in-person interactions. There are two reasons for this.

First, people need to get familiar with the connectivity and user interfaces of the technology platforms you ask them to use. There is an initial investment of time required to get people familiar with the features and functions of the video conferencing, webinar, virtual whiteboard, and other applications you are using.

Second, this perceived time dilation is simply a product of the limited ‘bandwidth’ available through a 2D screen. Think about it—we have gone from an ability to scan a room, taking in a 360° view of people in a particular environment, to a limited tunnel vision of the virtual workspace that is revealed through your laptop’s screen and speakers. As a facilitator or workshop session leader, you have to take this into account and meticulously plan the minute details of your collaborative activities.

The result is that most things you do online will take longer. So, to get the same amount of work done collaboratively, you’ll need to trim things down and leverage the advantages of technology to move people from step to step as quickly as possible without leaving people behind.

Mental exhaustion: Prioritize breaks and down time

We are all familiar with the basics of one-on-one video calls, but many meetings now include multiple people, filling our screen with small moving thumbnails that our brain has to process. The resulting cognitive load of paying attention to other people on a two-dimensional screen is orders of magnitude higher than if you were in an in-person meeting.

Think about it this way: when you’re in a Zoom call, each additional thumbnail video is its own mini-movie that your brain is trying to watch. Combine this with a general lack of informal chit chat, continuous screen time, and the social deprivation that comes with endless days of isolation, it’s no wonder we are exhausted earlier each day, ready to throw in the towel on the work week by Thursday!

Lack of soft feedback: Be aware that nonverbal communication is hampered

Humans have evolved complex means of social signaling that are part of our survival mechanisms and cultures. These signals are part of what we as leaders, facilitators, and collaborators use to ‘read the room’ and sense what others are thinking that they are not expressly saying.

“Slow-motion film analysis,” writes Thomas Lynch, Ph.D., “has robustly revealed that we react to changes in body movement, posture, and facial expressions of others during interactions without ever knowing it.

“Slow-motion film analysis,” writes Thomas Lynch, Ph.D., “has robustly revealed that we react to changes in body movement, posture, and facial expressions of others during interactions without ever knowing it. Indeed, we are constantly social-signaling when around others (e.g., via micro-expressions, body movements)—even when deliberately trying not to.” [Psychology Today, July 24, 2017]

When we are not physically present with others and our interactions are bandwidth-limited to—at best—a low resolution video thumbnail and distorted audio, we can’t sense where our colleagues are emotionally and what they are thinking. For facilitators, teachers, performers, and anyone who is ‘on stage’ in their work, this lack of social signaling presents one of the biggest challenges to working online.

Get your team together to examine your own collective journey through online meetings. What do you need to plan in advance? What do your participants need to do in advance? How should the first minutes of a meeting be spent? How will the main content be presented and discussed? What will need to be communicated at closing? What followup is required? The collaborative tool we’re using here is the free google slides.

Technical tools: Conduct careful, thorough research to determine what works for you

There are countless technology-related challenges to this new online-only way of working, from basic internet speed to the quality of video and audio from your desktop, tablet or smartphone. In time, most people will overcome these basic connectivity issues.

The bigger issue, especially for reproducing the collaborative experience of a workshop or something like a co-creation sprint, is the choice of what technology platforms to use. The two key requirements are a videoconferencing application (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.) and some form of interactive whiteboard service (Mural, Google Slides, Miro, etc.). There is no perfect solution, and we are experimenting with many of the platforms out there.

We are acutely aware that there is a lock-in effect once you start using a certain setup. Your team gets used to the hosting features and your participants get used to the user interface. Plus, your data and the artifacts you produce with these platforms begin to rapidly accumulate within the walls of their application, increasing costs should you decide to switch. The technical choices we have to make are clearly the most obvious, they are not simple to make, and they have long term consequences.

SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS

Born out of a desire to help our friends and associates across the globe thrive in the face of many COVID-19 disruptions, we’re advancing two initiatives.

Continue reading about our biggest lessons learned.