After three weeks of way too many Zoom meetings and all the learning about how to use the platform responsibly, is it time for a lighter note?

Conference Calls Gone Wrong

David Grady had it figured out 10 years ago when he shared this reenactment of a conference call. How many of your Zoom meetings have gone anything like this?

Dave later gave a TED Talk on the related subject of bad meetings. Did you suffer from such things when you worked in an office? Is your online experience better or worse?

Bloody Meetings

In my opinion, one of the best demonstrations of poor meeting practices and how to right them is John Cleese’s 1976 corporate training film, Meetings, Bloody Meetings.

The video only made it to YouTube recently. For many years, including when I viewed it during grad school, it was only available on VHS to borrow through academic and military libraries.

Don’t Be a Nuisance

Hopefully you’re getting enough exercise in between all the Zoom meetings. And when you’re at the screen, you’re doing your best not to bother your family, right? Showering regularly is important too.

With shelter in place and social distancing come plenty of opportunities to lighten the mood. Hopefully we can balance that with some critical thinking about how we got into this mess in the first place—and what we can build in the years to come for ourselves and our younger generations.

What do you have in mind for the futures?

P.S. If you just want to soar to the top of your Zoom meeting facilitation skills, check out this training webinar from Citizens’ Climate Lobby. On account of recent updates to Zoom, it may already be a little out of date but still an excellent resource.