No place is this more apparent than in the business world.  Whether viewed from either the employer’s or employee’s side, the drive to resume the ‘old’ normal has given way to something new.  It’s realized that what was imposed on us had positives.  Thus, there is an inclination to take advantages of the resulting learning and experiences and maintain those that we can use to the benefit of all as we reinvent the normal of the future.

The carry-forward learnings that are MISSED in working remotely

Without question, many studies conducted throughout this past year point to both the advantages and disadvantages to employers and employees who work from residences.  As they indicate and regardless of so many organizations reorganizing around what they have learned, there are definite aspects of being ‘in the office’ that are missed. 

HERE ARE SOME OF THE MOST EXPRESSED ISSUES

• Socialization that occurs with co-workers
  Working together under the same roof the ability to easily develop connection with other on both a personal and business-related level. How about lunch … or a cup of coffee … or what did you do this weekend simply aren’t easy or even realistic when the relationship becomes remote. 

• Having face to face meetings
  

  

  The likes of zoom have certainly provided the ability to ‘see’ otherS in our meetingS. However, it has not replaced the desire of people to want to sit around a table to discuss and reach solutions or next steps. Remote meetings provide an artificial sense of being together and a formality to discussions that tend to zap energy.  And energy is a valued ingredient to reaching decisions that are enthusiastically embraced by ‘the team’. 

• Having a natural separation of both sides of one’s life … work and home
  One gets up in the morning and heads to the office. We walk in that door and our thoughts, plans and efforts are directed toward achieving our intended goals for the day. It’s a structured routine that works for many. In working remotely, it is the responsibility of the worker to create and achieve that same mindset … at home.  It’s an acknowledged challenge by many who have experienced this during this past year. 

• Greater ease in being and feeling productive
  Again, it is the structure that going to the office provides that is missed when working remotely. Walking into the office door and sitting at our desk carries with it a mindset as to why we are there.  We can immediately attack our ‘to-do’ list intending to leave at day-end feeling accomplished and productive. 

• Collaboration is simply easier when in the office
  It is most common that the work we do is just one piece of the overall project. Ultimate accomplishment of it very often requires collaboration with others in one’s department oR another.  The ability to simply converse in person with someone else is often faster and more efficient than the need to use email or phone.
  
  
•  Developing a sense of trust, confidence and belonging is easier at the office
  

  

  Working together doesn’t make these traits and qualities an automatic given. Rather they are things we tend to develop with time and exposure.  Of course, it’s possible in a remote work environment.  However, it’s a more natural occurrence and just easier when at the office. 

ASPECTS OF REMOTE WORKING THAT ARE WORTH RETAINING

With all the things missed about the inability to go to the office, the remote work environment has provided some very definite and desirable advantages that the emerging ‘new’ normal will include. 

• The commute
  

  

  This one is atop the lists of many for the hours per week that employees are forced to make a drive to the office. Especially in larger cities having one’s day consist of an hour or two spent driving between home and office is frustrating and maddening. It’s viewed as a great, yet necessary, waste of time having little of any value.  To regain this time in a remote work environment is time that can be used to one’s  personal advantage and is a welcome benefit. 
  
  
• The dress code requirements
  Although dress codes within the office are somewhat more relaxed in these times the remote worker is prone to taking ‘relaxed’ to a new level. What one is wearing does not carry a guarantee of what is achieved and why not be comfortable.  As for a zoom meeting?  Stay in your chair and your only concern is how you appear from the waist up.  Just don’t stand as favorite sweats probably don’t cut it. 

• The politics within the office environment
  Remotely, office politics aren’t easily expressed or even that evident. The things that often give rise to them i.e., in-person meetings, the water cooler chats diminish both the occurrence and the ease of promoting them. 

• Office noise and distractions
  

  

  There is little argument that sitting at one’s desk or cubicle carries with it assorted distractions created by others around. And now, after a year of working remotely and having established a specific work area at home, many have come to appreciate the ability to focus and concentrate without interruption.  Therefore, this becomes one more aspect of the experience that many want to retain. 

• We’ve learned how to be effective at home
  Without question, suddenly working remotely from our residence had significant challenges. If other family members we home trying to do their job-related work it was juggling for space.  If children were learning remotely it required parental involvement that was clearly disruptive though necessary.  Now, one year later, many have carved out their work area.  Rules have been established designed to provide the ‘work’ atmosphere needed to be productive.  And it appears that efforts are being seriously made to allow children to have ‘in-school’ learning.  Thus we have settled into this new structure and able to focus on and be aware of the advantages provided. 

• Business organizations are beginning to enjoy the anticipated reduction of operational costs related to a remote workforce
  Investments involved in helping employees set up their remote work areas have already been made to a large extent. Providing automation and work tool access has happened.  This has enabled companies to reduce space and redesign the office around the revamped use that will accommodate occasional meetings and planning sessions going forward. 

With each day one can read of organizations who are altering their approach to conducting their businesses.  The amount of space they used to occupy is being reduced by many.  Existing space is being redesigned to accommodate team members who come together on occasion for key meetings or planning.  The investment has been made to allow the employee to successfully function remotely and maintain desired productivity.  Computers, access to needed tools, information and workstations all represent a major investment that companies are not so anxious to throw away.  At the same time, employees have come to like and even thrive in their remote environments. Thus, all indications are that the normal of our future is going to be a combination of what was, what became and what is now going to be.  Who would have ever thought?
Mike Dorman

Many struggled to be productive and focused while working from home.  Of course this was nothing like the more business-like and professional atmosphere of an office. Zoom seemed like a ‘cure-all’.  We may be distanced and yet the likes of Zoom enabled us to connect with our co-workers and teams.  It provided the real connection that was missing and that so many needed.  With Zoom we could see faces, reactions, chat and above all have connection!  Ah … maybe this could work.

Yet here we are … a year after being on this path. And, as it turns out, the positives afforded by Zoom in the early months of this ‘normal’ are clearly on the wane.  And because we are still living in a distanced world it seems prudent to consider the advantages still afforded by maintaining remote meetings while we address the negatives that many are experiencing with its’ use and change where needed.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES THAT HAVE CAUSED ZOOM FATIGUE?

Let’s explore some of what people are experiencing and complaining about.

1. When in a remote meeting we lose the ability to ‘read’ the other participants by seeing their verbal and non-verbal ‘clues’. These are things that enable others to gage the overall and specific reactions. Without this it is often presumed that participants agree.  This conclusion can lead us down a wrong path which is clearly not desired or an advantage for best outcomes. 
   
   
2. Natural conversation and discussions are not realistic and even possible. Participants are generally muted to eliminate background  noises and distractions (a dog barking or telephone ringing). Rather

   

   than being able to simply jump into a conversation it requires a more organized approach to offering input. Having people speaking over one another creating frustration and confusion.
   
   
3. Virtual meetings seem to have overtaken other forms of communication … forms that would be more productive, appropriate and time efficient. Users complain that every communication is via the likes of Zoom when a brief follow-up email would provide the update to a project and the decisions made in that meeting.  Perhaps what contributes to this is our desire to ‘see’ other human beings … our co-workers even if not necessary.

4. Too many people are requested to attend a virtual meeting who have little reason to be there. Why does this happen?  Is it presumed that because one is working remotely, they have a lot more time?  Therefore, they are asked to be in a meeting for no real justification or need for their input?  It’s a good question and situation to ponder.

5. Meeting organizers are scheduling others to attend a remote meeting without concern for their availability at a specific time. Thus, people complain that they are expected to be in a meeting when

   

   they have 1 or 2 others wanting their attendance at the same or overlapping time.  As one person indicated … “You should have been looking at calendars before scheduling meetings before we added video … it’s just common sense, and professional” to do this now. 

6. Remaining focused and engaged in a virtual meeting is a challenge. The ability to do so is influenced by the length of the meeting as well as the various distractions that impact your ability to

   

   pay attention.  One may find themselves distracted by studying the rooms in which others are sitting during the call … often in their homes. Incoming emails or calls distract even if one can resist looking or responding. Turning off such things while in the meeting offers the likelihood of a shorter and more focused meeting. 

7. Remote meeting formats only intensify the things wrong with meetings in an organization. To the extent an organization calls meetings that appear to be unplanned and unstructured as it relates to agendas and topics the experience is too often very lengthy and time-wasted events.  Carry this same approach into a virtual meeting format and it becomes even more-so.  Thus, the issues are not with the likes of Zoom.  Rather with a disorganized approach to having a meeting at all. 

8. Virtual meetings can and have caused productivity to plummet.

   

   People are calling too many remote meetings when an email or text follow-up would suffice.  Or meetings are delayed and extended because of technical connectivity issues and are imposing non-productive and wasted time of those involved. 

HOW TO MINIMIZE THE NEGATIVES AND ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVES

 The above are some of the key experiences that those attending remote meetings are having.  These issues have given virtual meeting application a negative rap. And what can be done to resolve these real issues?  Like all new innovations whether consciously chosen or imposed on us, we need to learn how to use them effectively.  Zoom and its equivalents are no different.  However, it will require that organizations seek and listen to those using it and the issues that are real to better define how to employ it to everyone’s best advantage. Zoom fatigue is not something a good night’s sleep will take care of.  Yet Zoom is definitely something that can have a positive impact on lives and business success when it is used and applied to work realities.
Mike Dorman

Obviously, it didn’t happen overnight given that his first year (1964) he had $8,000 in sales and $234 in profit yet he created an institution that is described in an article in ‘Investor’s Business Daily’.

Granted, the people I know and with whom I work as a coach are not people out to build competitive shoe companies.  What they often are, however, are people wanting to climb higher and higher on the success ladder … in their jobs, departments and/or businesses.  And I believe you’ll find that some of the same things that drove and motivated Knight can definitely motivate us to support our desire to achieve our own climbs.  I think you’ll see the connection.

#1 – His Perseverance: One of Knight’s college teachers made this point … “The cowards never started, and the weak died along the way – that leaves us.”

Of course we are all faced with competition and yet, it is only true competition to the extent that they, too, are other than cowards or weak.  Many people start and some don’t have the push to prevail.  This leaves a much smaller group of true competitors and sets us apart.

#2 – His inspiration: “The secret of happiness … lay somewhere in that moment when the ball is in midair, when both boxers sense the approach of the bell, when the runners near the finish line and the crowd rises as one. … I wanted that, whatever that was, to be my life, my daily life. … So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy … just keep going. Don’t stop.”

How strong is your own desire to succeed beyond all others?  What is your secret of happiness that is the true motivator to enable you to just keep going and without stopping?  Finding that can be the key to differentiate you and carry you to the height that you envision.

#3 – His passion: Knight was infatuated, something crucial in what drives him: “Your business has to be something you really love. Remember that there will be a lot of dark moments. You never make it overnight. You have to be prepared for the tough times. As my Stanford Small Business Management professor liked to say, “The only time you must not fail is the last time you try.”

How much do you love the job you’re doing, the field you’re in or the business you run/manage?  Success is never easy however it’s the passion we feel for what we are doing that can drive us through the challenges that will undoubtedly be encountered.

#4 – His differentiation: Knight said “I don’t want to be like my competitors.”  We take a lot of our culture off the athletic field. Just like with tackles and running backs, we have to have better people than the competition.”

Better people or being better than all others.  What does that mean for what you do and what can you do to enhance the divide between yourself and others as our competitors?

Phil Knight believed in running. He believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and he believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing his belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief, he decided is irresistible.

How committed are you to what you are doing and how much better do you believe you can do it than all others?  As such what can you do to widen that gap to cement your belief that you are the best.  As Knight said, people will sense that and want it for themselves.

We all spend the lion’s share of our time devoted to the ‘doing’.  The what’s, the whys and the hows dominate our attention.  And yet, spending ‘Knight’ time contemplating the points above can provide an opportunity to re-establish your vision for the ‘being’ …  what’s possible, what you truly want and how you intend to get there.

Mike Dorman