Engaging Non-verbal Communication in the New Zoom World
Sometimes it seems like it’s Zoom’s world now. We’re just living in it.
And as we adapt to a lot more virtual interaction, what kind of lessons are we learning?
Harvard Business Review says we have a lot to learn about virtual communication from deaf people, who are already highly attuned to relying on visual communication cues.
Non-verbal language can really increase engagement in a virtual meeting. Particularly in groups, having participants interrupt to express things like agreement and disagreement is both exhausting and disruptive to the cadence of the meeting.
Deaf people are used to sign language, obviously. On Zoom, participants can be taught to use hand signals, for instance:
One thumbs up means “Yes”
Two thumbs up means “I agree”
You can also instruct participants to use the buttons built into Zoom’s interface to express nonverbal feedback like “raise hand,” “yes” and “no.”
Coach your teams to use more nonverbal ways of communicating on Zoom, and your meetings will go a lot smoother and take a lot less energy.
