Sands’ research found that, in addition to a couple of short update meetings each week, the key to success is asynchronous written and video communication, focused on priorities and recognition. (The video communication took place using Atlassian’s Loom tool, with which people can record a video to overlay on desktop screens, presentation material and other content, then send to be viewed later when the recipient has time. Loom is an amazing tool, which Atlassian explicitly markets as a powerful way to replace some meetings. It gives the psychological impact of an in-person meeting without the need to sync up in real time and waste time on frequent and long meetings.)
Asynchronous video greatly reduces the burden of real-time meetings while providing many of the psychological benefits. It offers the time flexibility of email with the personal visual satisfaction of video calls.
More to the point: “There are a lot of better ways now that new technologies have unlocked for us to share information, to connect,” says Sands.
The best part, in my opinion, is that we’re just getting started.
Augmented or virtual meeting spaces?
Augmented reality and spatial computing promise to create an even better sense of connection through holographic avatars. That means many of the interactions in offices that do foster a sense of connection become possible just about anywhere. The “pop-in” can be replaced by the “pop-up” hologram. Those water cooler conversations and spontaneous collaboration and brainstorming can take place in virtual spaces.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools promise to revolutionize internal communication, helping organizations engender a sense of connection among employees, overcome communication barriers and surface the right data from organizational communication for better decision-making.
The ability of generative AI (genAI) tools to slice and dice content means that communication can be served up to match recipients learning styles, informational needs and specific languages. A single missive from a manager can be received by one employee with detailed complexity, another as bullet points, yet another as a spoken-word “voice mail.”
AI can help break down silos and share more information from across an organization without overburdening employees with time consuming meetings.
GenAI tools can also hoover up large bodies of back-and-forth information within an organization and perform sentiment analysis detailing for information managers and business leaders any points of frustration, confusion or lack of direction. AI tools can even tap into the communication hive mind and offer up micro-learning sessions for employees who are not understanding something.
It’s time for a total re-think on meetings
The bottom line is that now is a perfect time to reconsider every aspect of the meetings that happen every day at your company. They are now way too frequent, way too long and way too ineffective. It’s time to move to asynchronous and advanced forms of communications offered by a raft of new tools and new management practices.
Your overburdened, over-scheduled employees will thank you.
