{"id":8124,"date":"2021-10-01T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T07:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1368323"},"modified":"2021-10-01T07:00:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T07:00:52","slug":"4-video-meeting-rules-we-should-keep-following-in-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8124","title":{"rendered":"4 video meeting rules we should keep following in the office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/growth-quarters?filter_last=1&amp;fit=1280%2C640&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F09%2Fvideo-call-meeting-gq.jpg&amp;signature=78d8c6e235de87928b0350d8bbdb988e\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>2020 changed work \u2014 possibly forever. Millions of people started working remotely for the first time, and they learned it\u2019s not quite the same as working in an office. I\u2019ve worked remotely since 2009, and I\u2019ve spent a lot of that time thinking about the etiquette of remote meetings, answering questions like when <a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/when-to-mute-video-calls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">you should mute during a video call<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But as people start transitioning back into the office, I hope they\u2019ll take some of the lessons they learned from online meetings to improve the in-person ones. Here are four video meeting rules that I think should follow us back to the office.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Say \u201cgo ahead\u201d when you overlap with someone<\/h2>\n<p>Have you ever tried singing with someone over Zoom? Me neither, but regardless, it\u2019s not really possible. The problem is lag.<\/p>\n<p>Lag, the gap between when you start talking and when everyone else can hear you, is somewhat inevitable in video calls. The result: people talk over each other without meaning to. I\u2019ve noticed a pattern \u2014 an improvised etiquette \u2014 that\u2019s evolved in response to lag in meetings. It goes like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two or more people start talking at the same time.<\/li>\n<li>After a second, they both notice this is happening and stop talking.<\/li>\n<li>One or both people say \u201cgo ahead\u201d to the other.<\/li>\n<li>One person goes ahead and makes their point.<\/li>\n<li>This person, when done, asks the other person what they wanted to say.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s such a small thing, but I\u2019ve seen it happen organically in several different contexts: work, church, Zoom happy hours. There are variations. Sometimes it\u2019s another person entirely who follows up to make sure everyone gets a turn, for example. Still, the pattern is fairly consistent, and it works pretty well.<\/p>\n<p>And the best part is that many of the people doing this aren\u2019t even aware of what \u201clag\u201d is. They\u2019re just responding to the limitations of the tech in a way that feels natural. There\u2019s no lag in real life, of course, but I think this habit should stick around regardless. At least, the <em>intention<\/em> behind it should stick around.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience, people don\u2019t really work to follow up on missed points during in-person meetings, and when two people start talking at the same time, one person gets to keep talking \u2014 the other doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Going out of your way to let other people speak is a good thing, and so is following up to make sure everyone\u2019s been heard.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Schedule time for socializing<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s an awkward gap at the beginning of every video meeting. You know what I\u2019m talking about: those couple of minutes where everyone is trying to log in and\/or figure out why their microphone isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n<p>This is why, at Zapier, we generally don\u2019t formally \u201cstart\u201d meetings until a few minutes after the scheduled time. This creates an improvised time for socializing, which makes video meetings more fun.<\/p>\n<p>Some teams go further. Our content marketing team schedules an optional water cooler conversation after monthly meetings so that we can all catch up.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen similar formats evolve in other organizations, and like <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/why-wave-when-video-calls-end-syndication\">waving at the end of video calls<\/a>, a few minutes of scheduled socializing is a good way to fit a little bit of humanity into a virtual work environment that can be alienating.<\/p>\n<p>But you know what? Offices can also be alienating and could also use some humanity. Most in-person meetings start with informal conversation, but intentionally allowing space for this will still be important as people get used to seeing each other again.<\/p>\n<p>People should be encouraged to show up a few minutes early for a meeting, maybe, or there could be time for conversation on the agenda. We\u2019ve all spent the past year or so learning how hard it is to feel cut off from each other, and I hope that changes how we interact in person.<\/p>\n<p>Take a few minutes to see how people are doing \u2014 it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Accept multitasking<\/h2>\n<p>One of my favorite parts of remote work is the ability to multitask during meetings I\u2019m only marginally involved in. I\u2019ll admit I use Slack\u2019s schedule feature to hide the fact that I\u2019m working while listening to presentations that don\u2019t impact my day-to-day workflow.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is that most meetings don\u2019t require my full attention. That\u2019s why I often have a meeting on in the background while I work on something else. Sometimes I\u2019ll start working during a presentation and realize that it\u2019s relevant or interesting to me \u2014 and that\u2019s when I start paying full attention. That only happens because I have the option of multitasking.<\/p>\n<p>I think companies should try to keep some version of this alive in the office. Maybe workers in the office should have the option to call in to auditoriums and conference rooms, or maybe we should just normalize people who aren\u2019t core to a conversation working on their laptops during meetings. There\u2019s a benefit to this sort of multitasking \u2014 it can keep people engaged without completely bogging down their calendar.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this takes trust. Managers need to believe that their employees are working on something relevant, not browsing Facebook, and to trust that their employees are capable of knowing when they need to pay attention.<\/p>\n<p>That kind of trust is important in a remote context \u2014 it\u2019s the only way the system can work. Companies heading back to the office would benefit from continuing to trust their employees like they do when everyone\u2019s remote.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Maybe just have fewer meetings<\/h2>\n<p>Remote companies tend to have fewer meetings. Or, at the very least, remote companies tend to think about whether they need to have so many meetings.<\/p>\n<p>This is a skill that takes time to develop \u2014 learning how to work asynchronously and which things you shouldn\u2019t use meetings for are key to making the whole remote thing work.<\/p>\n<p>For example: one team here at Zapier <a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/asynchronous-standups-geekbot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">replaced their daily standup meeting with an automated Slack thread<\/a>. This accomplishes the same thing a meeting would \u2014 prompting reflection and keeping everyone informed \u2014 in much less time.<\/p>\n<p>Meetings can eat up a lot of time, and it\u2019s worth considering whether that time is well invested \u2014 or if you could accomplish the same thing without a meeting. That\u2019s as true in the office as it is over video chat, and I hope we all think in those terms going forward.<\/p>\n<p><i><span>This article by Justin Pot was originally published on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Zapier blog<\/a>&nbsp;and is republished here with permission. You can read the original article&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/video-meeting-etiquette-at-the-office\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/video-meeting-etiquette-in-person-office-syndication\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 changed work \u2014 possibly forever. Millions of people started working remotely for the first time, and they learned it\u2019s not quite the same as working in an office. I\u2019ve worked remotely&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}