Zooming Ahead: not so fast

(mintzberg.org/blog, 7 December 2020; co-authored with Hanieh Mohammadi)

We are smitten with the latest videoconferencing technology much as a lover is smitten with a new partner. We notice everything that is wonderful and nothing that is not—for a while, at least. Then the reality sets in. Of course, the sooner the worries as well as the wonders are appreciated, the better. Accordingly, before we close down any more offices, let’s review the benefits of this technology briefly, to give greater attention to its drawbacks, so often ignored.

Casual Convenience with Confined Structure   We used to travel to our office, and there, walk to our meetings, or else spend hours in an airplane to get to one. Now, a few seconds before the meeting begins, we amble over to our laptop in the convenience of our own homes, and log on. And lo and behold, there is everyone, in plain view. What could be more casual, more convenient?

Wait. Don’t be fooled by the apparent informality. What may seem casual in execution can be rather formal in organization. These videoconferences can be more tightly structured than meetings at the office. They rarely just happen: most are carefully planned with a predetermined set of participants, each of them focussing on one screen while being focussed in one frame (in their e-box). In other words, videoconferencing can be as orchestrated as a concert.

Of course, some meetings at the office have always been carefully scheduled.  But once started, they didn’t have to remain that way. People could move around, chat aside, challenge the agenda. And many more meetings at the office were not scheduled at all; they just happened. Somebody walking by a door started a conversation, or two people bumped into each other at the coffee machine, to catch up on the news or concoct an idea. Think of how much constructive business has been conducted this way.

Have you ever bumped into anyone on a zoom call? Or at the end of it, at a coffee machine? Usually everyone goes back to his or her own coffee machine. Don’t look for close encounters of any kind on this technology.

Do you plan to attend your favorite business conference online this year? Joining sessions will be convenient, but you’ll likely miss the chance encounters that often turn into your next customer.

Are you in favor of bashing the bureaucracy, flattening the hierarchy? If so, have a look at that screen. In a corner is a button called “mute”. You can block out your sound so that no-one can hear your dog barking, or you talking on another call. On just one participant’s laptop, however, is something more formidable, like the conch in “Lord of the Flies”: one button to mute all the others, enabling one person to control the conversation, deciding who gets to speak, and for how long. Bash the dissent, elevate the hierarchy, while others in their little e-box raise a plastic hand in to get attention.  When, however, no one hits that mute button, be prepared for chaos—like a family zoom call with everyone talking at once.

Mass Communicating minus Community and Collaboration   It’s amazing how many people can be brought together on a videoconferencing call. One of us did a podcast with an audience of 50,000 people in China —live! There he was, large as life, inches away on every single screen. And with each question came an intimate conversation with just two people on the screen. Compare this with giving a speech in an auditorium, where the speaker up on a stage somewhere struggles to understand a question from a participant far away.

On the call, the intimacy disappears as soon as another person appears on the screen: easy come, easy go in the wired world. And when that “Leave Meeting” button is hit, gone is any sense of community that may have started. One of us had several video conversations with a CEO. But only when they met face-to-face did she feel that they really got to know each other. 

A sense of communityship beyond leadership is key to the harmonious functioning of organizations. Hence, the good ones work hard to establish this. Once established, this can be felt/ on videoconferencing, namely among people who have already been in personal touch. But what about people who have never so met? Can communityship be built on line?

Orchestrated Harmony or Spontaneous Creativity   Have you seen one of those wonderful orchestral pieces on the screen, with the musicians playing so harmoniously together, yet each in his or her own electronic/ box? This scene is, in fact, constructed, just like a film is edited: they all played apart until someone put it together. This is quite different from the cacophony of “Happy Birthday” that you have probably sung to a relative on a zoom call, with no-one doing any editing.

How about an organization that needs an innovative design, or a clever solution for a puzzling problem? It used to be that a few people piled into a conference room, in the presence of a white board, with papers strewn across a table, while they engaged each other face-to-face. They walked around, share notes, scribbled on the board, took each other aside to dig deeper. How to replicate this on a videoconference call? What’s to see beyond the screen, what’s to do beyond the keyboard. Hit the “serendipity” key? Click for spontaneity?

So please, not back to the same old, same old “new normal”  Lateral vision is as important in management as it is in sport. We can no more play basketball with our eyes fixated on the net than can we manage an organization with our eyes fixated on a screen.  Don’t get us wrong. The videoconferencing technology is wonderful, in its place, as is every other technology. Use it, just not to your heart’s content.