I am a passionate advocate of Zoom.
Two years ago I delivered a significant strategic project in Asia (designing a 2,100 sqm regional office, project managing the build-out, overseeing the growth of a team from 11 to 211+ and managing sentiment for the project in the existing, geographically-spread workforce) from a desk in London… using Zoom.
This year almost everyone seems to be working in a similar way and it’s common to have meetings via all the main platforms in any given week… Teams, Skype, Slack, Whatsapp, FaceTime, Google Hangouts and of course, Zoom.
In the first half of the year I was forced to use Teams when teaching or facilitating large groups, but Zoom is my clear preference from a capability perspective as well as clarity, usability etc… not to mention that they acted quickly to extend time limits & make it easy for people to stay in touch with each other using their free option during the lockdown.
However… spending time teaching, facilitating or attending meetings online is really cognitively taxing and today I ran a 2.5 hour Zoom workshop and then went straight into a 90 minute Zoom meeting, with no break between… a total of 4 hours staring at my computer screen. Ugh!
On the plus side, although the rain was literally tipping down outside, I didn’t get soaked through, had no challenges regarding travel, and managed to escape for periodic cups of tea (and a corresponding pee) with ease.
I may not have had to run for a train when I finally turned Zoom off, but I did feel the need for a run… to clear my crowded head and especially to warm up from my chilly office 🙂
One mile on the machine, in just over ten minutes, left me glowing with body heat and with the satisfaction that the running seems to be getting easier.
Not that I don’t have a way to go… Mini-me Mark ran around the short and spectacularly bland Shoreham Basin road for a total of 60 miles last week! Zoom-zooming mad as I am, I’m still not that crazy! 🙂