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Take the Spoils!

Get off the repeat/same-result cycle.

By Joseph MurrayPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Take the Spoils!
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

It's interesting that so many people are able to spend hours at a time looking at their phone & laptop screens but are now suddenly suffering from "Zoom fatigue"... Don't get me wrong, Zoom fatigue's real. We can appreciate that a number of us find virtual meetings easier than many - some actually lose sleep over them, whilst others thrive. But when we have an issue with business plans, or team strategies, or just about anything else we deem important, we usually dissect the situation until we've found the issue, or cause. In the case of Zoom fatigue, however, we have a myriad of business people voicing their concerns, a reasonably constant flow of articles laying out observations, and an even bigger flow of opinions for/against virtual meetings. It seems we're stuck in a Groundhog Day rut of observing, writing & opinionating without actually doing much about it.

By Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

If we offer up opinion, especially on social media, it means we're keen for discussion. The intention to discuss, however, often isn't to hear another opinion, it's a call-out for like-mindedness, to have your own take on a situation confirmed, hopefully by any number of Likes. When the articles started to emerge, it was clear that some of us weren’t adapting to the new mode of communicating online as well as hoped. At the beginning of the pandemic, and still today, mention was made that virtual meetings weren’t really new at all, that some of us have been utilising them for a decade or more thanks to older platforms like Skype. What was new was that there wasn’t a choice, suddenly all of our meetings were online. Still, it was presumed we’d all get used to it soon… Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case, with articles about how to cope with multiple virtual meetings, the stresses of chatting to all of your colleagues at once and, of course, “Zoom fatigue” still emerging semi-regularly. We now know there are too many meetings, we know they're too long, we know the host has ways & methods of making the meeting work but doesn't use them... All we do is note that so-and-so said such-and-such about Zoom fatigue... and the cycle leading to for/against opinions repeats.

By Andrew George on Unsplash

So why is it that, after more than a year of forced virtual life, we’re still going round in circles? Albert Einstein is accredited as saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting a different result.” When using this quote, though, you’re usually referring to a single person or situation… Jump over to LinkedIn, the business world's equivalent of Facebook, and you’ll see many, many businesspeople, entrepreneurs & innovators who are doing exactly that: repeat, same result, repeat, same result, with the result still accompanied by that for/against search for the likeminded.

By Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

After a family member died and I'd well & truly (eventually) accepted I was going to have to get used to not having them around anymore (it took years to actually own that fact, as opposed to just knowing it), I also realised in hindsight that during the initial period of loss & grief I was really running on auto-pilot. That kind of loss is often accompanied with the massive fear of losing someone else. As if the grief wasn’t enough. But is it the grief that tips us over into auto-pilot (and beyond, sometimes), or the presence of such great fear? I don’t know. I ultimately lost 3 family members in as many years, so it was impossible for me to appreciate the loss without the fear at the time. There are millions of people who are now grieving and who are possibly grossly afraid of losing more to this virus, a very present threat and not just an unfounded “what if”. Are we, as a society, running on auto-pilot? To some degree at least? Are we still reeling from the mass fear we all bathed in for many months? How else can we explain our daily insanely repetitive search for similar opinions, in this case on virtual meetings?

By Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Being in virtual meetings is a form of public speaking. Rarely do we face all of our colleagues at once. There is very little chance to blend into the background of a meeting room now with our faces up there with the speaker’s. And it’s not only us, we’re also bringing our private spaces into the meetings. We’ve all looked past the faces to assess the rooms behind, and often without realising it, judged their backgrounds like we judged their work attire pre-Covid. But all contributing factors aside, whether you like it, or not, virtual verbal communication is here to stay. It saves time and it saves money. So it’s more than likely they have a more sure-footed position in the work-force than you do - can you imagine taking away cellphones to make some of us happier, or even safer. It’d never happen, there’s too much money & convenience involved. Presume the same of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, FaceTime and whatever face-to-face platform is out there and on the way. Come to terms with it. Face it. Get over it. Stop complaining about online meetings & communication like we do the weather. Granted it can be a search for common ground, a conversation filler, but it’s a huge waste of time & energy. It’s also insane repetition, dreading those inevitable meetings and not doing anything about it...

So how can we make ‘friends’ with online communication? Go to The Involuntary Public Speaker. You’ll be guided through a simple, once-and-for-all-time fix to making your communication effective and easier - the full course is 4 x 2.5hr sessions, and once it's done, you're set for life! There are a few exercises to do prior to going virtual, as with anything to do with the body you still have to maintain your skills. But you will be in charge of those skills as opposed to be being at their mercy. If that doesn’t float your boat, find someone else who knows how to navigate & teach the rapids of virtual communication. Don’t kid yourself, it’s a skill that we need to get under our belts. Ask for help. Break free of the repeat/same result cycle. Virtual communication is here to stay. Those who communicate well really are taking the spoils.

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About the Creator

Joseph Murray

Co-Director of That Really Cool Company Ltd (www.thatreallycool.com)

Founder of The Involuntary Public Speaker

(www.involuntarypublicspeaker.com)

Freelance writer

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