CEO OFFICE BACKGROUND FOR ZOOM HOW TO

This was the stuff of fantasy: Picturephone became an interactive Disneyland exhibit. An improved version appeared in the 1964’s World’s Fair in New York.

The word “video” did not enter the popular lexicon until the 1950s, around the time AT&T debuted its two-way Picturephone, which paired audio with still images sent at two-second intervals. In his telling, communication via screen is a monstrous technological overgrowth. Forster’s postapocalyptic short story “The Machine Stops,” published in 1909, features isolated individuals living in underground rooms, communicating entirely over video screens.

Either way, it raises the question: What is the next step?Īs fresh as it seems now, the concept of videoconferencing is hardly new. Some leaders may feel it isn’t really possible others may not have the training budget. But most have not yet addressed Zoom communication skills, let alone prepared their people to excel at it. Organizations are essentially codifying video calling as the communication tool of the foreseeable future-especially if remote and hybrid work continue to become so routine. Most crucial work now happens primarily on Zoom, from hiring to performance reviews to board meetings to billion-dollar business deals. Zoom stimuli are weird.Īll this might be academic, except that now video calling has overwhelmed the business community in a way that is not likely to change even post-pandemic. There are eye-contact issues and lag issues.” The neurons in our head fire in groups in response to stimuli. “Zoom conversation is this weird mixture of cues that seem like they should be natural,” says cognitive psychologist Julie Boland, professor of psychology and linguistics at the University of Michigan. That’s because our brains are not wired for a form of communication so different from face-to-face. More importantly, survey after survey reveals that even those who Zoom well burn out quickly during the day. Any sense of decorum is nonexistent (42 percent do their video calls from the bed, another 21 percent while walking or jogging). Even the simplest task-like controlling the microphone-seems beyond the grasp of many (71 percent of people say the most-used phrase on Zoom is “you’re on mute”). By almost any standard, they do not meet the basic criteria for good Zooming.

CEO OFFICE BACKGROUND FOR ZOOM HOW TO

And yet the corporate world is plagued by a nagging issue: Most businesspeople have no clue how to Zoom. They have become the preferred way to do business. Video calls have become the norm, whether via Zoom, Microsoft, or Google. It’s mysterious to me that after two years of doing this every day, they have not recognized the basics.” 'Some experts describe this rapid change in communication medium as the equivalent of shifting from cave drawings to comic books in a couple of years.' “Even with high-ranking people, I’m looking up their nose. Lee Gimpel, founder of Better Meetings, a meeting training firm, has seen all of this himself-time and time again. Still, her attendees stream in, displaying the usual video-call fails: lump on a chair (body collapsed in a seat), FBI anonymous source (backlit shadow figure), spider fingers (laptop camera trained on typing fingers), hostage video (white background, weird lighting). It’s quite a lot of effort and thought for a Zoom meeting. “In that first three to five minutes, you have to give that feeling of acceptance and belonging. “There’s constant communication,” says Lathan, who runs Haute Companies, a creative agency. She opens the main meeting room and says hello. She raises her standing desk to a point marked on her wall, checks her sound levels, and plays familiar Motown tunes into a waiting room where she tracks arrivals, welcoming each attendee and letting them know that the meeting will start shortly. Or like the shadow of Watergate ‘Deep Throat’ guy.” “I try to make sure I that don’t look like a grayed-out robot. She’s choosing between a ring light and side lamps, which she says she often relies on for late-night meetings with clients in Asia. “I’ve got great natural lighting from this eastern-facing window, but the sunlight changes throughout the day,” she says, as she decides how many lamps she needs. Lights and video gear are strewn around Liz Lathan’s desk, which resembles a television studio. See the latest issue of Briefings at newsstands or read in our new format here.

Ceo office background for zoom