This pandemic has certainly shifted the way that the world works. Global lockdowns stalled in-person connection across the world. And we were all forced into online video conferencing software to connect with colleagues and make progress on our projects. At first, everyone was enthusiastic about this change because the novelty kept things fresh. It was a nice change of pace to be able to attend meetings in your slippers. It was much better than trudging through the morning traffic.
However, as time went on, these virtual meetings took up more and more of our day. They started to drag on morale. There is a level of fatigue that comes with video conferencing. Without that in-person interaction, these can feel hollow.
Meetings can drag on and on.
In fact, many workers found that they were actually having more meetings than before. This was because they were missing the serendipitous connection and collaboration that would happen in an office scenario. As such, most of the working day is filled with calls. You’d then have to try and complete your work after-hours – leading to significant overwhelm.
With remote work set to increase by 77% over the next few years, there has to be a better way to do this. We believe it’s through the power of asynchronous video conferencing software. With a product like timz.flowers, you can get all the best out of video communication but in a way that’s much more efficient and suited to remote work environments.
Here are some of the key reasons why asynchronous video conferencing is something that your organization should be considering:
Employees Can Set Their Own Schedule
One of the benefits of remote working is that employees can structure their day with flexibility. They can work in ways that maximizes their productivity. Everybody works differently and has different life circumstances. Allowing this flexibility makes for much better holistic work-life balance.
The productivity gains are immense here. It’s estimated that 77% of remote workers report higher productivity levels when working from home. It’s clear that the office environment is not perfect for everyone. And by giving your employees freedom in how they set up their working life, you create a win-win scenario all round.
However, if you are still filling the day with video calls then you severely limit this flexibility. You’re losing out on those benefits.
Every different type of video conferencing software has been trying to innovate on their product. They all have worked to make it more user-friendly, and less dread-inducing. But this all comes from the same way of thinking. It’s trying to replicate what works in-person, but in a virtual environment.
We have to be thinking differently than that. We can’t just expect to copy-paste things as they once were.
Taking your video calls asynchronously is a game changer because you can dip in and out at times that works for you. All this while still offering the same insight and making the same points you would have made in person. This allows your employees to truly take control of their day and set their own schedule. One that is going to make them happier and more productive as a result.
It’s a tool that actually enables the magic of remote working.
It Gives Everyone a Voice
Meetings are fascinating social experiments. Depending on various factors, there are always going to be certain power dynamics that play out in these conversations. It’s not uncommon to see meetings being dominated by people with a fancier title in the organization. Or even just with a louder voice.
Unfortunately, team members who are more introverted prefer to think more carefully before they speak. And that’s who ends up being left out of the conversation entirely.
In a virtual environment, it is compounded by the struggles of weak internet connections, poor microphones, and the like. So, while we may think that everyone feels confident enough to speak up and raise their opinions, it’s not often the case.
In an asynchronous context this is flipped on its head. When everyone has a chance to digest some information and prepare a response. Not to mention being able to record it in the comfort of their own space. This leads to much more genuine and honest feedback. Instead of having to fight social dynamics to be heard, each team member can say what they really think.
It’s staggering what happens when you unlock this level of candidness. You’ll likely be blown away by the ideas that you’ve been missing out. You’ll realize how some of your team members were being held back from communicating them. It levels the playing field and ensures that you can tap into all of your resources. Thus arriving at a consensus that is truly the will of the people.
Variety of Conversation Structures
When you’re in a synchronous conversation there are only so many ways that you can run it efficiently. We have all become very comfortable with the traditional social paradigms. We fall into those structures without even thinking about it. But for many creative projects and more complex team discussions, these structures actually aren’t serving us.
- Perhaps you should take some tangents offline into smaller groups
- Some decisions require everyone to chime in, but this wastes time for the others as they wait for their turn?
- What if we want to work in two separate silos, only to come together to compare notes at the end of the meeting?
- Perhaps we want the issues brought up in this meeting to feed future conversations without losing the context?
In all of these cases, a tool like timz.flowers allows you to craft an infinite variety of conversational structures that can suit the task at hand. Because everything is asynchronous, you are not limited by the typical constraints in normal conversation. Your conversation can sprout into many different branches and team members can be selective in what they respond to – as required.
The meeting is not one-size-fits-all anymore. It can form a shape of its own. Every person can add value where they need to. And they can save time by not engaging where they don’t.
This is one of those concepts that you’ll only truly understand when you try it out. It can seem strange at first, of course. But that’s because we’ve gotten very used to running meetings in a certain way. When you embrace the creativity and serendipity enabled by asynchronous video conferencing, a whole new world opens up to you.
Modular Recordings
In a typical meeting, you rely a lot on the person taking minutes (if anyone even does). Their job is to capture the essence of the discussion and codify how certain decisions were made. But, as anyone who has worked in these settings can attest to, this leaves a lot to be desired.
In fact, it’s one of the biggest challenges when it comes to meetings. How do you record things so that you can refer to them in the future? Especially when you start to action those decisions.
As we moved to video conferencing software, it seemed that we had solved this. Every meeting could now be recorded and this purported to be an improvement.
But we quickly found out that a video without context is not worth that much. This is because of the time it takes to find the relevant sections. It’s frustrating to have to scrub through a video, trying to remember where the specific piece was. All this effort just so that you can pull up the information that you need.
An asynchronous tool like timz.flowers provides a very underrated benefit in this regard through its modular video. Now, every specific part of the conversation is recorded and essentially tagged. The diagram is right there in front of you. When you’re looking to refer to a certain part of the meeting, you can go right there and see everything that was discussed in context.
The data you can glean from these modular recordings is much richer and more detailed than any minute-taker could deliver. And it doesn’t take any fuss to get to it. The efficiency gains here are significant. It’s one of the more surprising things that our clients discover when they start using the product.
More Efficient Speech
Ideally, we all should be thinking carefully before we speak. But in practice – this rarely happens. In a meeting environment there is a time constraint and social pressure that rewards people speaking on-demand, somewhat off the cuff. That leads to a lot of fumbling and grasping for straws. People try to discover what they think as they speak.
This is a constructive exercise for each individual because it’s only when we try to communicate something, that we figure out if we understand it. But it is actually a significant waste of time for everyone else. It would be a scary statistic if you were to calculate how much time we waste in meetings. Mostly because speakers were slowly working towards the point there were trying to make.
Asynchronous video conferencing has natural incentives built in that push against this tendency. They encourage each individual to think carefully before they record a response. This makes for much more efficient speech and that makes for a better experience for everyone.
We’ve often found that what used to require an hour, can now be accomplished in 20 minutes. People can pause and take a moment to gather their thoughts before sharing them. It can be a force multiplier for productivity if you use it effectively.
Public Scaling
More and more companies are realizing the value of transparency and customer connection. As such, the ability to scale public meetings and conversations becomes ever more important.
Imagine, for a second, that an organization is planning to launch a new product. They want to gather some qualitative feedback on some of the features that would matter most to their target audience.
They could send out a survey and try to convince their customers to fill it out in text format. But this is something that most people find really tedious. They could send out a call on social media and try to collate the feedback coming back from various channels.
Or they could set up an asynchronous video call where customers were encouraged to leave their feedback and join in the conversation. It’s a fun, low-friction way to engage with your community. The conversation is going to be that much richer as a result.
The concept of building in public like this is one that continues to gather steam. Companies realize that by staying much closer to their customer base and interacting with them intentionally, it is much easier to find product-market fit. It helps to avoid spending lots of time and resources on features and ideas that there isn’t actually demand for.
Asynchronous video conferencing software opens up the possibility for much richer market research. This only serves to increase customer loyalty. Over the long-term, this is what makes for sustainable innovation. Not to mention the personal connection with the humans behind the brand.
Conclusions
These are just some of the new areas of innovation that excite us here at timz.flowers. It’s the reason that we exist! We truly believe that asynchronous video conferencing software is the future. We are doing everything we can to advance the cause.
As first-movers in the space, we are always looking to experiment and develop our technology. When we see clients discovering hidden gems in this new paradigm, it reminds us why we are doing what we’re doing. The world of meetings is never going to be the same again.
Video conferencing software is not going away. The world of work has shifted dramatically. And so it’s up to us to redesign the way we meet to align it with the way of the modern world. If we are going to stick to the status quo, we are going to find ourselves on the wrong side of history.
If your team is looking to revolutionize your meeting technology today, give our tool a go. We assure you that it’s an experience like no other. It can unlock insights and ideas that you never would have discovered otherwise.
