Does it Have to be a Video Call?
Overview
Did you spend much time on video calls prior to the COVID-19 pandemic?
I have to admit (and this may date me a bit), I did not, and especially not often for work even though I had previously worked on “remote” teams. (Remote in the sense that we all worked in different offices versus remote as in working from a home office).
So why does it feel like everything takes place on a video call now?
There are already a plethora of resources out there arguing for which video conferencing tool is the “best” (PC Mag; Hubspot; Owl Labs), and most of us are tied to one (or a few) options within the context of work, but I’d like to argue here for considering these tools (and whether or not to even use a video conferencing) through the lens of narrative.
As Anderson argued in his paper on goal reasoning and narrative cognition, humans use narrative cognition to build personal narratives which aid in structuring our beliefs and goals (Anderson, 2015. p. 2)
So what story do you want to tell about your project? How is your project, and narrative, best served by a video conferencing tool for digital collaboration?
An Introduction
Let me introduce you to Charlie.
Charlie is preparing to start a new project, and they are trying to decide if a video conferencing tool would be useful.
How can they think about narrative as they consider their video conferencing needs? Below are a few questions Charlie could consider when selecting a video conferencing tool, but these questions could also help Charlie conceptualize their project through the lens of storytelling.
Guiding Questions
What is the Theme of the project? Why does it matter?
Who is impacted and involved with the project? Who are your characters / stakeholders?
When does the project need to be completed? How will you plot your progress?
Where will the project take place? What setting is best for collaboration?
Crossing the Road
Here are some of Charlie’s notes about their project:
Theme
Why do I want to cross the road?
I have many reasons for crossing the road but mostly because that is where the corn storage is located.
Waiting for deliveries of the corn while there are delivery driver shortages has caused extra anxiety to everyone on the opposite side of the road from the corn storage.
Character
My crossing the road means that I can blaze the way for others like Cricket. She would also like easier access to corn. I think it would be helpful to discuss my plan with her as a potential stakeholder.
Plot
My stock pile of corn is running low, so I’d like to finish this project in the next two weeks. I will need a program to track my plans and progress.
Setting
This is ultimately an outdoor project, but the planning could take place in person or online. I should reach out to Cricket so we can compare schedules.
An Email Later
Charlie already knew that Cricket prefers email for quick communication so he sent one over to ask her if she’d like to be part of the project. They also asked Cricket if she had any preferences regarding how she’d like collaborate and communicate during the project.
Here are notes compiled from Cricket’s email response:
She agrees to the two-week timeline after checking her corn supply.
She has several other projects going on right now (including managing installation of new corn storage bins) so she would prefer an initial video call to go over the project charter.
She would prefer asynchronous communication for the rest of the project given the short timeline with a final closing call at the end or a retrospective just after the project depending on how the project progresses.
She recommends Microsoft Teams since it has video conferencing tools, chat channels, and integrates with other Microsoft tools that they might need during the project.
Microsoft Teams has an overall 4.4 customer rating on Capterra.com’s Best Collaboration Software 2022 list; however, if you sort their list by highest rated for video conferencing Google Workspace comes in as the “best” with a 4.7 customer rating followed, with the same rating, by OnBoard, Slack, and ConnectWise
Next Steps
Now that Charlie has a good feel for how their collaborator would like to communicate, they will begin writing the project charter and setting up some basic tracking. But which program to use for those items?
Conclusion
When I teach writing, I generally tell students NOT to use in conclusion, but here I am breaking that “rule” and signaling you that I’m closing out this little genre mixing blog? Article? Reflection? Dare I say - narrative?
Charlie and Cricket will be the characters in their own project, and my reflection on their development process. They have a goal (a theme / a why) of easier access to their favorite food, and they know when they’d like to accomplish their goals. They now need to decide how best to track and progress their project (the plot and setting). Will you join me in following their story?
References
Anderson, T.S. (2015, May 28). Goal reasoning and narrative cognition. Papers from the ACS Workshop. Technical report, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Best collaboration software 2022 | reviews of the most popular tools & systems. (n.d.). Capterra.com. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.capterra.com/collaboration-software/
Images: Free use content from Canva
