As the speaker leading the meeting it can be particularly disconcerting. Once that happens it’s all too easy to lose the thread of the discussion going on around you. Those delightful plings and chimes that accompany a new text, email or twitter alert cry for our attention, and most of us are only too willing to give it its due, quickly looking away from the camera to a second screen or a separate web page opened furtively in the corners of our screens.

Multitasking: We find this, perhaps, the hardest part of online communication the temptation to look at, and respond to the many online notifications popping up in front of our faces. We can always see ourselves, however small the screen may be, and it’s unnatural and unsettling – not to mention highly distracting. The Mirror: Imagine having a meeting or giving a presentation and those you’re communicating with are holding a huge mirror next to them where you can see yourself on full display? How odd and disconcerting would that be?! Well, that is exactly what is happening in our online meetings.

This can be confusing and exhausting for all involved. We miss so much vital information in online meetings, that we readily have available when meeting people face-to-face, that we are unable to recognize when to change our approach to better engage others or respond effectively to those we are conversing with. It is even harder for managers whose expertise lie in running their organizations and teams, and not in analysing body language. However, as we’ve been teaching online for at least a year now, even we have noticed how hard it is to read non-verbal cues through a screen/video link. We, as Presence practitioner experts, have been teaching Presence offline (face-to-face) for years, and can detect in mere seconds which participants are engaged, enthused, resistant, tired, confused etc. One key problem is that we’re no longer able to effectively read body language.

How to create a zoom meeting