Thinking about how to preserve employees from the mental fatigue caused by excessive remote meetings, we have created a guide of good practices for videoconference
In case you haven’t noticed, videoconferences came to stay. It is true that remote work showed us an universe of possibilities that were not practical in the presential model. But, as nothing’s perfect, we have also been feeling the negative effects. Here at Datum, alternatives to prevent mental exhaustion caused by excessive remote meetings, called Zoom Fatigue, have been discussed.
For a long time, I searched for possibilities to change habits and couldn’t find anything. We are all on the same boat, facing a new work model that piles up daily meetings. We are experiencing first-hand the effects of the lack of options in this reality.
Therefore, after much thought and exchange with other leaders, I developed a guide with 15 best practices for videoconferencing that are already being adopted and tested by our team.
It’s always good to point out that maybe not all of them will make sense to you or your team. However, I believe that the debate and brainstorming can contribute to advances on the subject.
15 good practices for remote meetings. Find out what they are:
1. First, ask yourself: is this meeting really necessary?
2. If the answer to the previous question is ‘yes’, then have a clear objective when scheduling the meeting. Without a well-defined purposed, the topic of the conversation can easily change.
3. When inviting people, share the topics of the meeting in the invite itself, so that everyone knows what will be discussed.
4. As far as the categorization, for meetings belonging in category A you should use a computer to be able to access files, tools and systems.
5. Meetings from category B should also be attended in a computer, but with the possibility of exploring different spaces than you are used to.
6. In category C, try to use smartphones or tablets, devices that allow the person who’s speaking to move around. But before you should check if the meeting can’t be replaced by a phone call or an audio on WhatsApp.
7. Choose windows of less than 30 minutes. Start at 10:05 instead of 10:00, for example, to allow your colleague to drink some water or use the restroom in these five minutes.
8. Don’t be late or ask to cancel at short notice. This interferes with the schedules of the other participants.
9. Don’t take up any spare time to discuss other matters. By doing this you consume all free time and overwhelm people. Deal with other subjects in a chat, asynchronously.
10. Invite only essential people, who have decision-making powers or who are directly involved. The rest of the team can be communicated about the results later. Another option is to record the conversation and share it.
11. Question the scheduling of meetings less than 48 hours in advance. Not many matters require this urgency.
12. Learn to express your feelings. Don’t be afraid to ask for a break in between meetings. If the topic allows it, ask to continue the conversation over the phone, so you can step away from the screen for a few moments.
13. Set aside an hour to answer questions from your team. That avoids interruptions during other moments of the day.
14. Every now and then, close the camera to take the attention off the screen and yourself. Or, as an alternative, use the “hide self-view” option.
15. At last, encourage your team to think about points of improvement so that the debate about videoconferences can advance more and more.
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