Zoom calls can be really fun. They can be energizing and creative.
But they can also be terrible. Meetings full of participants where only a few people talk the whole time. Meetings where you feel like you would rather be doing anything else. (And meetings when you turn your video off and actually DO something else!)
Zoom fatigue—the brain ache that comes after a day of virtual meetings—is real (article,theory paper from Stanford researchers). There are a bunch of different reasons for this.
In virtual meetings, we lack nonverbal cues. People can’t make eye contact, so you don’t know when they’re focusing on you (and vice versa).
Video limits body language. And social cues—like a small hand gesture that warns of an interruption—are lost.
All of this increases cognitive load. We need to use our thinking brain, instead of our intuitive, social brain, to make sense of what’s going on.
Yes, we still need to receive updates from our colleagues. We need to ask questions and share our work. And we need to uncover creative solutions to hard problems—all challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But even as we absorb the impact of coronavirus, the way we work has changed forever.
Video calls are here to stay.
So, how can you stay connected while minimizing Zoom fatigue? How can you prevent endless video chats from dominating the calendar? And how can you create space for the creative problem-solving that is at the heart of your work?
Here are some practices I’ve developed through managing my team, working one-on-one with coaching clients, and helping large, distributed groups define and solve their most challenging problems.
Have fewer Zoom calls
What can you do instead of clicking that “New Meeting” button?
Inform without Zoom
If you need to tell people about an upcoming event, deadline, or project, draft a short and informal document that your team can engage with asynchronously. Have your team edit the doc and use comments to provide feedback and ask questions.
Do this even if you know that you’ll need to have a discussion with your team. Circulate your document as a pre-read or—as is the practice at Amazon—begin your meeting by reading it. (Pro tip: have everyone turn their video off.)
Even though it may take you longer to write something, you will reclaim energy for you and your team. It’s not just about time, it’s also about fatigue. Shaving off 15 minutes of video chat may not seem like much, but it adds up, particularly when everyone on your team gets that time back.
Update without Zoom
Instead of endless update meetings, experiment with structured questions.
Every Friday, for example, we ask my team
What are you going to work on next week?
What obstacles do you anticipate and what input or support do you need to make progress?
Do you have quarterly goals that you are going to be moving forward?
Or if it’s something that’s hard to write about—something where tone and sensitivity matters—consider circulating a short video message with your team.
Create without Zoom
I’m a person who loves to create in partnerships. But in a Zoom meeting, even with just a handful of people, it’s too easy for creative conversations to become stilted. It’s hard to interrupt, and many participants remain silent.
Instead of bringing together a group on Zoom, create a mini-podcast. Host a podcast with a peer and record the conversation. You can share the resulting file with your team (often with transcription through a service like Otter.ai) to share your thoughts.
Communicate without Zoom
Finally, recognize that sometimes you just don’t need video calls. Sometimes I use video conferencing with my coaching clients, sometimes I just ring them up on the good, old-fashioned cellular telephone.
Video is great. But so is the phone. I often find that I’m more focused, less distracted, and less fatigued when I can move around instead of staring at my screen.
Have better Zoom calls
Zoom can be a wonderful tool that helps people feel engaged and creative. And there is still some work that really requires real-time collaboration. So, how can you best collaborate while managing fatigue?
Create space to bond
With fewer video calls on your calendar, you can afford to spend some time strengthening connections within your team. Rather than run a “Zoom happy hour,” create space for your team to share what’s going on in their lives. Or start with a warm-up, something as simple as having participants cover and uncover their cameras in response to questions: “Leave your camera on if you’re a coffee drinker… a tea drinker… ate meat last night.” It’s a simple exercise, but it helps mobilize energy.
Create space to think
Not everybody thinks at the same speed. When you ask a question of your team, set aside a minute for everyone to think about it before the discussion starts. Then put pairs in breakout rooms (yes, even in small teams) to seed the discussion before rejoining the larger group. Not only will this generate better ideas, but it will also reduce fatigue since there are fewer people to divide attention between in breakout rooms.
You can also create space by inviting fewer people to your meetings. It will result in better meetings that create less fatigue. And the people who don’t join? You just eliminated a source of fatigue from their lives.
As long as people trust that you’ll inform and engage with them when the time comes, not everyone needs to be part of every discussion.
Create space to collaborate
Zoom limits throughput. There are delays. We can’t interrupt, we can’t have simultaneous conversations. We can’t build off each other’s ideas.
In short, it’s harder to collaborate.
So, take advantage of the format. Create a parallel workspace with shared visibility—in Google Docs, OneNote, chat, live Q&A software, or an online whiteboard. Having your co-creators type in ideas in a Google Doc is a remarkable way to multiply the impact of your collaboration.
Create space to plan
Spend as much energy planning your Zoom meeting as you spend engaging with the problem you’re actually trying to solve.
Planning how you engaged was important (and often undervalued) before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the cost of Zoom fatigue—and the limitations of video—makes it critical now.
For every meeting, choose one content goal and one process goal ahead of time and encourage your team to do the same. Write them down. And consider sharing them.
What does that look like? Here’s an example.
Content goal: I want to get three ideas for how we can message our new product to customers.
Process goal: I want to make sure everyone shares at least two ideas.
Create space to experiment
We’re in a brave new world—one that’s here to stay. Be open with your team about your efforts to reduce their fatigue.
To that end, create space for ideas and suggestions. Consider using the approaches above to talk with your team about how you will reduce video conference fatigue. (Meta, I know.)
Remember, there is no right answer, there are just things we can learn. Be open. Be curious. Run better meetings. That will go a long way to reducing fatigue and, ultimately, empower your team to do great work.
And don’t stop experimenting with Zoom! For more on the power of experimentation (and why we need it now more than ever), check out my essay on The Transformational Power of Curiosity.
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