Physical meetings are now being complemented more and more by virtual meetings. We are all ceaselessly jumping from one meeting to another on virtual conferencing rooms like Zoom, Meet and Google hangouts to name a few popular ones. Although the pandemic has fast-forwarded this shift, It was bound to happen as organisations embrace technology, appreciate globalisation, and seek access to the best talents around the world regardless of location.
Studies have shown that a mandatory ‘video-on’ policy is being adopted by many companies as putting a face to a voice and picking up on non-verbal cues are vital to effective communication. Especially, when establishing new business connections, video-on can be quite the game changer.
Video calls come with its own challenges. To list a few -
- Lack of a social context
- Anxiety caused due to periods of silence, which in a real-life conversation would be considered natural rhythm according to an interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead by BBC.com.
- Zoom fatigue (a term popularised by this pandemic)
Here’s how you can break the monotony -
- In virtual meetings, there is a proclivity to launch right into the task without any icebreaker protocols, which can negatively affect relationship building. The best way to break the ice is to add a social element to the proceedings. Art talk can be a perfect start.
- Art conversations can help activate the right brain, kindle memory, reasoning, creativity and participation, and in the process get everyone comfortable – all contributing to an effective virtual meeting.
- Art can evidently increase your empathy for others. A study found that after students viewed art, they had a greater tolerance for differing views and a boost in their critical thinking. This study can be extended and applied to team members on a call. A powerful artwork on the screen can improve the thoughtfulness and empathy among coworkers.
- Stanford researchers have identified that Zoom fatigue(or any video-conference tool fatigue) is often caused by the over consumption of non-verbal cues, prolonged close-up eye contact and surprisingly also because we see ourselves for long (which is naturally never the case in a physical meeting) . All this can again be easily tackled by placing a beautiful piece of art as the back ground frame. It can soothe our own senses as well as that of others in the virtual room, by shifting the focus from the faces to the artwork and limiting the opportunity to over analyse non-verbal cues.
- There are apparent health benefits as well. Empirical studies suggest that art influences our emotions in a number of ways. There is observational evidence that aesthetic appreciation of art can improve mental health and well-being among people. This can be attributed to the positive emotional response elicited by bright colours, feel of artwork themes, depth of the stokes or sometimes just the tiniest of textures on the canvas.
All this is just a click away! MayinArt has curated collections of works that can help create a positive environment at your home-office or at your workplace.
But do not limit yourself, do visit mayinart.com/artworks to check out our huge collection of original paintings and sculptures. Alternatively you can write to us at [email protected] for advisory on the painting that can be your “Zoom-in Art”
