CAVO Ep. 45: Optimizing Your Presence in Virtual Meetings

The major shift to virtual work caused by the pandemic created traumatic disruption and challenges for many organizations around the globe. Employees at every level have had to adapt to the virtual environment and often without proper training, tools, and know-how. In this episode, Melody Rawlings, Director of CAVO is joined by Karin Reed, coauthor of Suddenly Virtual, to discuss practical, actionable best practices, supported by meeting research that lead to more productive and effective virtual meetings.

Transcript

Melody Rawlings  0:01  
Welcome to the Center for the advancement of virtual organizations podcast, optimizing your presence in virtual meetings. I'm Melody Rawlings, Director of CAVO, and today I'm joined by Karen Reed. Karen is an Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist who has become an executive Communications Specialist. She is a coach and Trainer with a proven methodology to help others harness the power of video communication. Today, our discussion will focus on Karen's new book, suddenly virtual and the emerging trends we are seeing in virtual work. Welcome, Karen. And thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat with us. 

Karen Reed
Melody, this is such a total pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome.

Melody Rawlings  0:44  
So in previous episodes, we've been talking about things unique to businesses and organizations operating remotely or entirely virtual. Now more than a year out from the global shift to the virtual workplace. People become more accustomed to video conferencing and zoom and other platforms. But I still hear people say they would rather not turn on their camera or dread the virtual presentation. So this is a timely discussion. And I'm so glad that you're here to have it with us today. So Karen, I know that as a broadcast journalist, you've got many years of experience in front of the camera. And I'm eager to get your perspective on emerging trends in video meetings and presentations. But to get us started, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Karen Reed  1:29  
Absolutely. So my career began in broadcast news. As you mentioned, I won an Emmy along the course of my career, I worked primarily for NBC and I interviewed luminaries like Muhammad Ali. But I left the business in 2004, to apply my skills in the corporate world. And what I found is that I would be brought in as the professional on camera spokesperson. But more often, they were bringing in people from the C suite or the corner cubicle to come in and appear on camera alongside of me and expect them to perform at the same level of skill. That often did not work out so well, because it requires a totally different skill set to talk to a camera versus to an audience that you can actually see. 

So I recognized a business opportunity to teach business people how to be better on camera communicators. So that was how my company speaker dynamics was born. And that was about a decade ago. And since that time, I wrote my first book on camera coach, which encapsulates the methodology of the MVPs, of on camera success, wrote the second book that you mentioned, and you know, those skills is on camera communication skills are more relevant today than ever.

Melody Rawlings  2:44  
That's awesome. And I know that I could certainly benefit from reading reading your all of your books, and I've enjoyed reading suddenly virtual. So that's just, that's just great. And information very helpful. You know, I often see articles about emerging trends and virtual work, as well as articles about best practices and tips for virtual meetings and presentations. But I've never seen the two put together. So what are your thoughts on that has our approach to video meetings and presentations evolved from pre to post pandemic?

Karen Reed  3:15  
Well, first of all, I would say melody, you can't, you know, talk about virtual work and not talk about virtual meetings, because virtual meetings really are at the heart of virtual work, that I will say, there's also been an evolution from March of 2020, to today. And the approach really continues to evolve. So at the beginning, when everybody was told to stay at home, and we had that sudden shift to remote work, people were kind of seeking just out any tools or techniques that that would work. Not necessarily what would work best, you know, there was this rapid adoption of video collaboration tools, which was amazing for me to see, because I've been teaching virtual communication for years. 

And usually, I had to begin those workshops by trying to convince people of their value. But people got it, they knew they needed to create some way of connecting on a deeper level than perhaps a phone call, which would be or an email, but they use these video collaboration tools without a whole lot of thought in terms of how to use them well. So there's some positive and there's some negative that's been associated with this, you know, positively, people recognize that video meetings can work quite well, there was barely a blip in productivity, it was pretty much stable or even improved in some situations. But there were some negative consequences. You know, we've all heard about video call fatigue. But what I would say is, it's not the platform's fault. It's not the technology's fault. It's more a product of the fact that we had this meeting explosion. We had more meetings than ever before, and those meetings were going longer. And because we were having all of these back to back meetings, it was exhausting people. 

So there is a reset that is happening right now, where organizations are trying to develop policies that can help to combat that, that video call fatigue. So you probably have heard about some organizations implementing the no meeting Mondays or, you know, there's a push to use it for the right purposes. So, you know, using video in meetings is essential if you want to have collaboration and dialogue. But if say a meeting is just for information sharing, you're just basically having a couple people talking at a large group, that might not be a video meeting, that might be something where you record that presentation, and then you send it out to the masses so that they can watch it on their own time. Because you can't just have a wall of meetings for your day and expect them to be able to execute any of the action items.

Melody Rawlings  5:53  
Those are great points. And, and something that just really comes to my mind is the are the length of meetings as well. I know that we just finished our Cabo virtual conference for 2021. And we intentionally kept the sessions to 45 minutes. Short, because there's so many distractions, as we all who you know, work from home and who are still working from home, we know that there are many distractions in the home environment, and allowing just the 45 minutes is more, you know, more concentrated, but also allowing 15 minutes to change sessions that really worked well for us. 

And I think the zoom fatigue also can can so easily come into play, not only because as you said, so many meetings back to back and throughout the day, but also the length of the meeting. So I also totally agree that keeping them as you know, just as short as possible to cover what is needed to cover the information that needs to be discussed or presented is also a good way to reduce or mitigate zoom fatigue. So in your book that you indicated that remote meetings will likely be a part of the long term impact from the shift to the to working from home. And considering that many companies are having employees returned to the physical workplace, at least part of the time, do you think remote meetings will still be part of the mix? 

Karen Reed
Absolutely. I mean, they really have to be as we make this shift. Now this is kind of the second grand meeting disruption over the past year and a half as we head into hybrid, you know, virtual meetings will be the only way to connect the people who are continuing to stay remote with the people who are back in the office, there's no other way to have him communicate, then to have some sort of virtual meeting space. But it will be more challenging because you have a more complicated communication network. 

You know, whenever we were all in person that created one network, where we were all communicating in the same space. Whenever we all went virtual, we were creating one network where we were all communicating in the same space on the screen. But whenever you introduce hybrid into the mix, you've got a combination of people who are perhaps joining from a conference room where three people are located, and then you've got another conference room, joining from a different location, then you've got five people who are popping up on their individual webcams, they're all a part of the same meaning. And they all have to communicate with each other, but you have these multiple networks that you somehow have to weave together. So it's really critical that you have, for example, the right technology for those who are both in the office, as well as for those who are joining remotely. But you also have to make sure that you train people on how to adjust to this new way of meeting. So you have to train meeting leaders on how to be effective facilitators of these sorts of discussions. And you also have to raise the awareness of attendees that they have to recognize everyone in the room, whether they are there physically, or they are there virtually. 

So it really requires a very intentional approach upfront. The organizations who will succeed with this hybrid work well, we'll put some good thought into it and, and actually train their folks and develop some policies around it. Those who just kind of winging it, I be concerned that there is going to be a dip in productivity and a loss of team cohesion.

Melody Rawlings  9:19  
Yeah, exactly. And I think as you hit on training is going to be so important. And I think that's one thing that was lacking, when there was that shift, there wasn't time for training, because it was such a such a quick sudden shift, you know, brought on by the pandemic. And so this needs to be very methodical, I think there just needs to be training and how this is going, how meetings are going to happen, how the communication is going to take place. So So yeah, great, great information there. 

So I'm going to pivot a little bit here and something I mentioned before and I think this resonates with me is one reason I'm I want to kind of address this is why do you think Some people do not like turning on their camera. I know that I've been guilty of this myself. And I can understand some of the reasons but I would like to get your perspective on that.

Karen Reed  10:09  
Absolutely. So, you know, sometimes it's as simple as you know, it's just one more thing I have to think about, I'd rather not think about it, and I get that, but probably the more overwhelming issue that I encounter is that people are hyper critical of their physical selves. So when you went into these video collaboration spaces, for the first time, you were seeing yourself communicate in real time and seeing your image on the screen was distracting and possibly disconcerting. 

And so a lot of people really found that very difficult. And so they would monitor their own performance. And by simply watching yourself speak, you actually change who you are. So you start to take away from your authenticity, and and that will come across to your audience as you come across as fake. But also, we see things that no one else sees. So I like to tell the story of an on camera, communication training client who I was working with, she had done a baseline presentation before we started working together. And then I always had people do a post training, video presentation, and I was watching her. 

After training video, my back was to her we were in person at this time, and she had come so far, I was really excited to see the dramatic changes and how she was coming across. And so watching the end of it, and I turned around to her and I said, What did you think? And she said, My right eyebrow is higher than my left eyebrow was like, What are you talking about? Nobody is noticing the height of your eyebrows. But she could only focus on that. So we see things that no one else sees. And that creates a real barrier to our communication effectiveness.

Melody Rawlings  12:01  
That's a great story. And I can relate to that. So so totally, totally resonates with me. And it reminds me of the old adage that we are, we are our own worst critics. So you know, what we when we say, other people aren't noticing at all. And sometimes I think, to myself, Don't flatter yourself to think that other people are noticing that because they're they've got distractions and things going on, either in their environment, or just on their mind. And, and they're not really thinking about that. So, so great information. So what strategies strategies or tips do you suggest to help help help us overcome that reluctance to turn on our camera?

Karen Reed  12:41  
Well, the one thing that you can do is leveraging one of the functionalities of many of the platforms in and that's to hide yourself view. And if you go into zoom, for example, if you hover over your box, there will be three little dots that will pop up in the upper right hand corner of your of your gallery view box. And if you click on those three dots, then there will be a menu that will pop up and at the bottom, it'll say hide self view, if you click on hide self view, then you disappear from the screen. 

And then you resist the temptation of looking at yourself, because it's no longer available. So that that's a great functionality that I think a lot of other platforms will start to offer, because it puts you in a more realistic conversation scenario, you know, we can't see ourselves, talk to others. And you know, it's not like we walk around with a mirror to our faces. Yeah. So you take that, you know, mirror effect away, and it helps to restore some of the typical communication, you know, paradigm that you would have. The other thing that I would also suggest is following the best practices for eye contact. So what I suggest is, in order to speak with impact, you want to look at the camera, you do not want to be looking at the people that you see on your screen, even though we want to because as humans, we seek out eye contact. And we do that in a virtual space, sometimes incorrectly, because we're looking at the screen, we think we're looking them in the eye. 

But if you are on the other side, it looks like you're not looking at them at all. And oftentimes it looks like you're looking down at for example, you're using the built in webcam that's on your bezel of your laptop. So what I suggest is when you are speaking you want to primarily be looking at the camera lens that's going to feel to your audience like you are looking them in the eye. Now that does not mean that you need to stare at the camera lens and not glance down at all. Whenever we are talking with people face to face. 

We often break eye contact, it's natural to do that. So you want to interact with the camera lens the way you would with a person's face, which means Yeah, you do. You look down you look to the side you look up as you're concentrating Waiting on your message. And that will give you an opportunity to kind of glance down and see if somebody is nodding along or see if somebody is perhaps checking their phone. And then you need to like change your delivery accordingly. But if you follow that best practice for eye contact, it also helps to take the pressure off of yourself by looking at your own image on the screen too.

Melody Rawlings  15:23  
Those are great tips. I love HUD self view that would make such a difference. And I'm definitely going to remember that and use that. So thank you. And then also looking into the lens of the camera, and not staring but but looking into the lenses if you're looking at them. So great tips. Thank you. I love that. And that segues well into my next question. 

And, and I love that you included reflective exercises or checklists throughout the book that you called looking in the mirror, and then a worksheet based on the adaptive improvement model or the aim framework. So the aim framework requires three key ideas to consider. And that's continue, stop and start. So could you explain these ideas and how they help us maximize our virtual meeting experiences?

Karen Reed  16:09  
Absolutely. So you know, as well as I do Melody, that bad habits are hard to break. And they often have a strong gravitational pull. So even if you managed to break it initially, we tend to go back to doing what we did before. So the aim framework really guides you in taking a close look at what you have done thus far. And then it gives you a way to assess what things you should continue doing what you need to stop and what you should start doing. So if you'll allow me I'll kind of take you through a hypothetical organizational situation. 

So for example, with the aim framework, you would start by Okay, what should I continue doing? So maybe this organization has been using video in their meetings, and they use it for videos that are discussion based. And that's really the best way of doing it. So they want to continue using video in their meetings that super. Now what do they want to stop? Well, they know that they've been using video in their meetings, but they've been using it too much, because they're having back to back meetings with no recovery time in between, which is leaving everyone exhausted. So the next step is to assess, okay, what should we start doing? 

Well, this organization decides that they're going to start creating pad between their meetings. So instead of a 30 minute meeting, they're going to make it a 25 minute meeting, instead of having an hour long meeting, they're going to make it a 15 minute meeting. So going through this framework in a very methodical way helps you to come up with some real action items that you can employ.

Melody Rawlings  17:36  
Oh, that's great. I love that. Yeah, I when I was reading the book, I thought, I'm going to come back. And I'm going to do this, do these activities. And because I didn't have a chance when I was reading through the book The first time, but I'm going to do that because I can absolutely see how beneficial that would be so. So thank you for including those and for sharing with us here how that works. So thanks so much for all the insightful and helpful information that you've shared. Are there any additional pieces of advice or bits of wisdom, you could leave with us today to help us optimize our virtual meetings?

Karen Reed  18:09  
Absolutely. And also, I want to thank you, Melody for mentioning the checklists. And the framework, because you know, we want this to be a practical guide, theory is great, we have all sorts of science behind what we are presenting, but we want people to be able to use this book as really a workbook that can help them to get the most out of these virtual meetings. So I'll just leave people with this bit of advice. 

When you're doing any virtual meeting, or certainly any hybrid meeting, you've got to put the work in ahead of time, make sure you create an agenda and then send it out in advance, you want to get people invested in what is going to be covered, give people some pre work, you know, maybe it's assigning them a report to read ahead of time or or simply asking them to put some think time in on the topic at hand. Because what that does, is it allows you to use the time in that video meeting for deep discussion, rather than a surface introduction of the facts. 

And I would just urge people, you mentioned it, I mentioned it, keep these video meetings shorter and purpose driven with a clear goal. And then make sure you have the right people in the room because large meetings in a virtual space with too many attendees become unwieldy very quickly.

Melody Rawlings  19:26  
Absolutely, totally agree. And I'm all about the practical strategies and practical ways to you know, to maximize my virtual meeting. So as you said, theory is great, but when it when the rubber meets the road, I want to know what practical strategies I can implement to really make a difference. Karen, thank you so much for joining us in support of the Center for the advancement of virtual organizations. We so greatly appreciate your insights and we know our listeners will benefit from your experience.

Karen Reed  19:57  
Thank you so much Melody. It's been a real pleasure having you on This conversation with you. Keep up the good work.

Melody Rawlings  20:03  
Karen, if I might ask one more thing would you share with listeners where they can purchase a copy of your book? You do not have to ask me twice.

Karen Reed  20:10  
This one. You can get our book anywhere you buy books so you can log into Amazon you can go into Barnes and Noble if you put in suddenly virtual making remote meetings work, you will find it and we'd love for people to pick up a copy. Awesome. Thanks so much.