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