The recent US Senate hearings on content moderation had to be briefly put on hold, with senators and the media all waiting impatiently. The reason? Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, couldn’t connect to the meeting.
Irony aside, this incident underscores something of which anyone who’s ever worked remotely is keenly aware: Online remote meetings, are hard. So hard, in fact, that the recent explosion in online meetings during the pandemic has led to a new psychological condition called Zoom Fatigue.
On the other hand, the benefits of having a remote-first company structure are undeniable. In recent months, I have had the opportunity to talk with potential clients from Vienna, San Francisco, Dublin, and Valletta all by remote contact. They were all different size organizations and each had different requirements, but what was common to all of them was that because they were remote-enabled, they were able to cast a much wider net in search of people to fulfill those requirements. Even in times when working from home is not a safety requirement, companies that work remotely have a significant edge.
Scrum, like many other Agile frameworks, puts a great emphasis on communications, and meetings are seen as a crucial part of that process. Outside of the framework, as well, meetings are a significant part of the way organizations share information and make decisions. Since we can’t (and shouldn’t) avoid them, let’s look at some of the factors that can make remote meetings hard, and what we can do to make them better.
- Conversational handicap
A Forbes study from 2009 rated the top reasons why people prefer face-to-face or remote meetings. Among the respondents, 77% of those who prefered face-to-face meetings cited “Ability to read body language and facial expressions” while 75% said “More social interaction, ability to bond with co-workers/clients.” When we converse face to face, we have a lot of tools at our disposal. We can see a person’s body language, we can accurately hear the tone of their voice, we can see if they are sweating or flexing their fingers. All these little cues add layers to the conversation that go well beyond the text of what is being said. This is the way human beings have evolved to communicate, and without it we feel handicapped.
2. Contextual confusion
When we sit in a meeting room, there are clear and understandable codes of behavior. We are all dressed appropriately, we all pay attention to the same thing, and we’re all there for the same purpose. But when we’re working remotely, especially when it’s from home, those lines can blur. Many of us don’t dress up for online meetings, and many experience distractions that would not happen in the workplace like kids barging in, dogs barking, etc. These factors can cause us to keep switching context between “work” and “home”. According to Gerald Weinberg, computer scientist and psychologist, context switching between just two tasks can cost us as much as 20% of our productivity. When that happens, it becomes much harder to pay attention to the meeting.
Another facet of this is that the action is not happening around you, but in front of you. Unlike a meeting that is happening all around you, a meeting on the screen takes up about 30 degrees of your vision arc, and there’s plenty of space off-camera for your phone to distract you. Not to mention that you can look like you’re looking at the meeting, while actually doing something completely different on your computer. You might even truly believe that you are paying attention, but the fact is that you have switched context and lost track of the conversation.
3. Technological limitations
As Zuckerberg’s incident illustrates, even the best technology has its limitations. Calls disconnect, there’s an echo, someone forgets to mute, etc. Even when the call works flawlessly, you are still limited to using your voice and maybe some hand gestures. I have been in many technical discussions over the years where people got up and started drawing on a whiteboard to get their point across. Sometimes you just have to draw someone a picture.
So how can you make remote meetings better?
First, realize that remote meetings are different than face-to-face meetings and acknowledge that fact to your team members. As in every other aspect of the agile mindset, communications and transparency are key, and your team members would appreciate knowing that they are not the only ones struggling.
You can’t eliminate the underlying challenges of meeting remotely. But you can try to minimize their impact. Try these suggestions to make your online meetings better:
1. Keep it small, keep it short, keep it focused.
I have led remote teams of various sizes at many times during my career, and I’ve come to realize that the larger the group, the longer the conversation, or the more topics covered, the more likely the meeting is to lose focus or people. The Scrum guide states that the idea size of a team is between 3 to 9 people. I would argue that 5 or 6 might be a better limit for a remote scrum team. Anything more than that and it takes too long for everyone to speak, and people lose focus.
Speaking of focus, pick one topic for the meeting, and stick to it. It is tempting to set a meeting to discuss several things at once, especially with the logistical challenges of setting a meeting when people might be in different time zones, etc. Still, a couple of short, focused meetings will be a lot more effective than one long one. After having the first meeting, you might even find that you don’t need a second one (see below).
2. Make it an email.
Think twice about whether you need a meeting altogether. Sometimes, the purpose is just to disseminate some information that doesn’t require a discussion. Sometimes, a topic that seems at first glance to be for the whole team is actually just a conversation between a couple of people. Meetings are a crucial tool for communications, but they are not the only one, and sometimes you can skip them altogether.
Turning a meeting into an email can have another benefit: Some people are not comfortable with speaking on the spot or what they would perceive as conflict. Some people also just prefer to have time to think and weigh the decision before expressing an opinion. Turning a meeting into an email gives these people a chance to express themselves on their own terms.
3. Make it interactive.
I was in a remote meeting of an agile forum not too long ago which included about twenty people. Typically, in such a large meeting it would be hard to maintain engagement, and people would tend to drift. However, this meeting utilized an online whiteboarding tool called Miro to let everyone write and drag things on a virtual whiteboard simultaneously. I’ve also been in meetings where the organizers used a Kahoot! quiz to engage participants. (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Miro or Kahoot! in any way.)
Adding interactivity to your meeting adds another layer to the communications process, and lets people engage with the conversation when they are not actively speaking. It can also significantly simplify the conversation because sometimes it’s much easier to just draw a picture.
This is by no means a complete list. Every team faces its own challenges and every organization is unique. If you would like to get deeper into the conversation, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Trained Eye Consulting or on Linkedin.
