By Dave Wendland, for Forbes Agency Council, as appeared on Forbes.com April 24, 2020
“Are you there?” Whether you’re conducting an internal meeting with fellow remote employees or with clients in multiple locations, we have all been answering this for the past month as the shape of the workplace has continued to evolve and previously existing social and business norms have been replaced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (In actuality, this question typically occurs throughout the meeting as video or audio lags or connections are abruptly lost.)
If you’re like me, you’ve also been asked: Are you remote? How are you? Can you hear me? Are you scared? Did you just sneeze? Did you hear? What’s the latest? Can you share your screen? Are you wearing pajamas?
Working remotely and changing communication styles has become the norm for many, including me. I have discovered that with fewer distractions, conference calls are more pointed and productive than face-to-face meetings. Sentences are shorter and more concise. Pauses seem longer but often provide a much-needed break in the discussion, and action items are summarized more effectively. Seems to me that we have adopted a Twitter-like mentality, where fewer words become more meaningful.
Make no mistake, when Twitter first launched in July 2006 and limited messages to 140 characters, our language became awkwardly compressed. Today, Twitter has become a way of life for many, including the president of the United States. Brevity is necessary to get a point across in a medium such as this was a tipping point to more concise communication in general.
It is my hypothesis that conciseness has become the new standard during turbulent times such as we are facing. With so much information to impart, getting to the point quickly and simply has become paramount.
Not to mention there’s a likely reality that human attention spans have decreased. As a matter of fact — or at least of an urban myth — goldfish may have longer periods of attention than do humans.
Sometimes, when in the midst of a storm, it is difficult to see what calm will look like. There are many predicting the aftermath of COVID-19 and what changes will remain following such an event. I believe that one long-lasting outcome and workplace change affecting everyday business will involve many more remote workers and expanded video conferencing.
Far more business will be conducted remotely, which will demand concise exchanges of ideas, more purposeful and intentional conversations, and outcomes and actions determined more quickly and decisively. The comfort of interacting from afar will become second nature and feel normal over time.
At the root of each of these dynamics is communication. And whatever the true source of this communication style epiphany that less is more when it comes to words, I’m going to end this post with one final question, especially if you’re working virtually from a remote office: Are you there?