We have now been in lockdown for more than 160 days and have had countless one on one conversations, exco meetings and board meetings via Zoom (Zooming) or Teams (Teaming).  It has been interesting to see the evolution of the video conference over time.

In the beginning, all started the meetings with video on and remained on for the duration. This meant that you had to get yourself presentable for the meeting, but only the parts that were visible by the camera.  I, myself felt that that was too much to PT and opted for the usual “morning ritual” of getting ready for a day at the office. My fear being, that if I only got the top half of me presentable, I would inevitably forget and stand up to show someone something on the other end of the camera. This could spur interesting, embarrassing or exciting conversation, comments or thoughts not related to the meeting or the object.

This approach to meetings did not last long and, today, most meetings start in and remain in audio mode only, removing the pressure to look your best. And this also means that you can now delay your “get ready” routine to a more appropriate time of the day, or worst case (debatable) till bed-time.  Unless, of course, you told to “show yourself”. This has yielded some of the most innovative lists of reasons why it’s not possible to turn on the camera.

During all this, I noticed, that while I was still losing my cool at times, others, who had a reputation for losing their cool in meetings were not. I had to discover how their secret. I now have a collection of stress balls and stretch toys with an ample supply of sticky labels. This, together with the mute button, has contributed to calmer meetings.

We have now reached a new level of maturity with these remote meetings with signals to indicate when we would like to contribute to the conversation and everyone being able to participate on an equal footing.  On the other side, it makes visible those who want to dominate the meeting or, those, who take an exceptionally long time to get to the point!  More so, with the absence of the usual fanfare, coffee, cookies, and other snacks. Distractions which are available in face to face meetings, and absent in remote meetings, unless you have stocked up. Although not as effective