The meeting is now broken.
Even if you were actually engaging with the attendees before, it’s over. You took a new medium and stuffed an old one into it, changed the dynamic and ruined it.
Zoom is a device that eliminates physical distance and enables a synchronized conversation. Interactions in real time. In particular, groups of three to eight professionals, there to have a discussion.
Throwing your powerpoint into the mix transforms the dynamic. It takes your face off the screen and makes everyone else irrelevant. It forbids interaction. And it prevents you from reacting to the room as it unfolds, since it’s linear.
The disrespect comes through, even if you didn’t intend it to.
If you have something to show us, send it before the meeting. If there’s a memo, we can read it in advance, or afterward. In fact, if the memo is really important, simply pause the meeting while we all take two minutes to read it. We know how to read.
Reading and interacting are different events.
Powerpoint was invented by socially-awkward engineers as a way to create deniability and clarity in boring tech meetings. It’s a persistently misused piece of tech, used as a crutch or an effective way to hide.
If you call a meeting, do the work to earn it. Make sure the right people are there, make sure you’re prepared and make sure they are too. Use any excuse you can to cancel the meeting and replace it with a memo, one that’s short, clear and designed to accept responsibility.
There’s another new medium that’s arriving–well-edited, short and punchy videos, a one-way method to carefully say what you wanted to say. Send one of those if you want…
Show and tell has a long history going back to first grade. But if you’re going to do show and tell, do it with care.
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