How to Make Your Zoom Better With Space
Tomorrow was here.
Christine logged onto her computer and reluctantly opened her calendar. She scanned her day, full of meetings, looking for anywhere there was a break.
“Looks like I can stretch from 10-10:10, lunch from 12:30-1:00, and take a breath after my 4:00”
She sighed and wondered when she was ever going to get around to her ever-growing to-do list.
After another sigh, she opened the agenda for her first of many meetings today.
Last week we explored the idea of visuals while on our video calls. We talked about the good (being able to see someone face-to-face if you’re not able to be in the same room) and the bad (using the ability to turn your video off as an excuse to check out without accountability).
This week we’ll talk about space.
Space
For years I’ve been teaching about how having the right space for the meeting can make all the difference. Most of us can recall a meeting where we were crammed into a space that was too small for the people, or a meeting room that just wasn’t set up right for what we were trying to accomplish.
But in this case I want to shift the focus a little to breathing space, white space and space-in-time, if you will. There are three ways that we can focus on space in our meetings better right now.
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First, we need to make sure there’s space on the agenda for relationship building, questions, hiccups, technology gaffes - a little breathing room, if you will. “How is your day going?” “What’s new with you?” used to happen in the hallways, at the coffee pot, or in the moments before the meeting started. If we all jump on to our calls right at the start time, and dive right into the agenda, that human connection gets lost. When possible, allow time for that.
How? There’s no need to create an agenda that uses every second of the meeting time. Instead, create one that is built to use less than the allotted time. If something goes wrong, then we can accommodate it; if we take a few minutes to catch up as people, then we won’t be rushed; and if we finish early, then everyone gets a few minutes of the gift of time.
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Second, for the sake of all of those people who are currently feeling the pressures of being scheduled back to back to back, we need to allow space between meetings.
How? If you are responsible for your own agenda, schedule meetings that stop five or 10 minutes before the hour, or that start five minutes after the hour. This preserves time for bio breaks, stretch breaks, or even a quick chance to do something other than sitting and staring at a screen all day long. There are all kinds of studies that show us the benefits of those micro-breaks in our day when we have chances to move around, or wrestle with Fido, or turn the crock pot on for dinner tonight, or even warm up a cup of tea. Create breaks between meetings.
How? Publish agendas that say the call begins at 1” and that the first agenda item starts at 1:05. Or publish agendas that give 10 to 15 minutes of closing and wrap-up or Q&A at the end of the meeting, and wrap up quickly enough to give your attendees back those 5-10 minutes.
- And third, we need to add space after our sentences. Talking on a zoom call is not the same as talking in a face-to-face situation. Let’s all get better at allowing space between sentences, between thoughts, for the other person to chime in or at least catch up with where we are.
How? If you are a talker like me, you need to really discipline yourself to add breathing space at the end of your sentences to allow the other person to respond or jump in, or catch up if the technology lag between you more than a millisecond. Try using non-verbals like taking a sip of your beverage or sitting back a little from the screen so others have a cue that you’ve paused. (And of course, that’s the benefit of the video call - that others can see you’re pausing!)
How will you make your video calls better with space? Join us next week to explore the idea of brevity.
