Digital Body Language Conquering Online Meetings

what if it were the year

2024 it might be difficult to imagine

right now but what of this new normal

might be here to stay

zoom calls come to mind

who would have thought that zoom the

service would so

quickly come to represent an entire

industry of virtual communication it’s

like saying

google or kleenex or popsicle now i know

most of you

may hope that zoom goes away when we

stop saying social distancing

but let’s take a step back most

businesses were already using some form

of virtual communication before the

crisis

nobody thought much of it until

everything turned virtual overnight

our meetings to our birthday parties

morning yoga conferences everything in

between

turned virtual and now we have a new

buzz phrase in our vocabulary zoom

fatigue i have a friend who relates

zoom of 2020 with email of 1995.

both of these services are changing our

lives

the difference here is time we were

forced to adopt

zoom over a matter of days rather than

the luxury of a long

decade for email

and just as we learn to dare i say

embrace email i think we’ll learn to

like zoom to

what’s good about zoom connection

we quickly taught every generation from

our

preschoolers to our great grandparents

to connect

virtually it’s been clunky sure

but what would we have done without zoom

humor in the early days of stay at home

those zoom memes and fail videos were

just the laugh we needed

what’s not so great about zoom

connection

no matter what we do the zoom call will

never have the same

feel or energy of face to face

but it’s close i believe the body brain

connection is the key to more productive

and collaborative meetings

while we ease that fatigue and since

zoom isn’t going anywhere anytime

soon and most of us don’t have control

over how many meetings

we’re invited to every day i am here to

share my body

language expertise and give you the

power

of the body brain connection i’m going

to use a song to help us all remember

head shoulders knees and toes you know

it right

so hit smiling

really does go a long way to helping our

perception

on zoom and that same smile can go a

long way to prevent those

negative facial expressions from

creeping onto our screens

[Music]

and a smile tells our brain that the

meeting’s not going so poorly

and that helps with our fatigue and

let’s face it

some of us have listening faces that

tend to be a little more

shall we say upset or angry on screen

so shoulders our shoulders chest and

head

are the main communicators of

collaboration

and relationship this is what we use

when we

hug someone these are the body parts

that soften when someone falls in love

and this is what we see on zoom

we can use more upper body movements to

set the stage for more collaboration

and relationships on zoom knees

now i never thought i would tell anyone

to wiggle and fidget more

but nobody could see you from the waist

down so wiggle

all you want we weren’t wired to

stare at a face in a box all day

much less we watched ourselves so when

you feel that stress and fatigue start

to creep in

you can throw in some bees knees and

wiggle your ankles and tap your toes

nobody will see you and toes

the next time you end a meeting i want

you to have your toes lead you on a walk

around the room

we need to tell our brains that we are

task transitioning

and this is what this physical break

does for us

that is one of the main reasons why it

is well documented

that shorter meetings and more breaks

helps ease this fatigue

just as you move from your conference

room to another office or a child moves

from classroom

to classroom we have to simulate that

experience at home

so head shoulders knees and toes easy to

remember right

so what’s next protocols

and etiquette for zoom just as we had to

do this for email

now we’re finding ourselves in the

position to needing these for zoom two

and i am more than happy and willing to

share the connectivity and body language

piece

on zoom now there’s a lot we don’t see

of our body language through that screen

but what we do see

is clear and amplified

and easier to learn and to teach

the greater picture

some things coming out of this pandemic

will be positive

i for one hope curbside pickup is still

with us in 2024 why not keep more remote

working for our parents and caregivers

why not keep that zoom call with grandma

on the weekend

when we live so far apart

maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to return

to some

sort of status quo just because this

transition

has been fast and furious we have an

opportunity to listen to our thought

leaders

our psychologists and our

neuroscientists

and intentionally create a better way of

moving through this new normal

we can productively navigate through

this

newer way of building relationships

so embrace zoom head shoulders knees and

toes and wiggle your way to your next

meeting

and make it a great one