Videoconferencing

Navigating Remote Communication in the Video Era

May 27, 2025 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

How to strengthen connection, avoid digital misfires, and lead effectively in a hybrid world

Remote Team Communication – Issues and Opportunities

Remote work is here to stay—with it comes powerful tools and persistent pitfalls.

In a recent survey of leaders navigating hybrid and remote teams, three recurring challenges emerged:

Loss of personal connection due to over-reliance on digital channels
“E-missiles”—emails or chats that come off as rude, vague, or aggressive, causing unnecessary conflict
The 24/7 trap—blurred boundaries that erode productivity and personal time

While tools like email, Slack, Zoom, and Teams are designed to boost efficiency, they can also amplify misunderstanding, isolation, and fatigue—mainly when used without intention.

Common Communication Frustrations:

Over-copying on emails, flooding inboxes with unnecessary noise.
Poor writing: vague messages, grammar slip-ups, and no clear ask.
Unmuted chaos: background noise in meetings (dogs, dishes, toilets—yes, really).
Agenda-less video calls where no one knows why they’re there or what’s next.
Low-quality tech: choppy video, echoing audio, or awkward delays that kill engagement.
Some people do not turn their camera on during videoconferences.

Best Practices That Work (and Matter More Than Ever):

One timeless truth stands out: Remote communication works best after making a personal connection. Leaders who invest in building rapport in person or virtually create a foundation that makes digital communication far more effective.

Humanize the Experience

Schedule virtual coffee chats that have nothing to do with work. Replicate those “walk to the breakroom” conversations in a structured, informal way.

Be Mindful of the Medium

If a hallway conversation affects your remote team members, loop them in via message, summary, or quick call. Inclusion builds trust.

Build in Connection, Not Just Check-Ins

Don’t let digital communication become purely transactional. Make time for relationship maintenance. Cycle through your team intentionally to keep engagement strong.

Respect Boundaries

Encourage team norms that protect personal time. Silence isn’t laziness—it’s recovery. Sustainable performance depends on it. If you have a wide range of time zone differences, rotate group meeting schedules to spread the inconveniences.

Today’s challenge isn’t just using technology—it’s using it well.

Video Conference Taboos

October 9, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Pinnaca is a global video-conference provider. They provide tips for how to more effectively use video conferencing. One graphic that caught my eye that is pertinent to our global clients is the cultural acceptance of certain behaviors and environments.

Like any generalization, I am sure the rules are not universally true. They do provide an interesting opportunity to be sensitive to other multicultural norms.

Casual attire is something I see a wide range of opinion about, even within the USA. I met last week with the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company who wore jeans … that were not that new. The next day I was at another company where the culture defines a suit and tie to be the norm for men. For most workers in the USA, something in the middle, such as a dress shirt with no tie, is the most common dress for men. For women, the range of proper dress is a little more complex, but follows a similar range of expected dress.

No pets and no children

How Old Are You?

March 10, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

When my father was 60, he referred to himself as being “middle-aged”. His friend asked him, “How many people do you know who are 120?”

A Life Well Lived

Minnesota Orchestra Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was born in Poland 93 years ago. He started playing piano at age 4. He loved playing music until he was injured by a bomb during World War II. He became a conductor in Warsaw and Cleveland before he took over the Minneapolis Symphony in 1960. A few months ago we heard him conduct the Minnesota Orchestra with such gusto that it was hard to believe he was 93 years-old. His love for the music was clear. One non-stop performance was 80 minutes long without using the written score. Last year he conducted in over a dozen countries. So how old was Skrowaczewski? Sadly, he died last month. He fully lived all of his 93 years.

Being Engaged in Life

There are numerous studies that all point to being engaged in something you find worthwhile (for pay or not) significantly improves our happiness and our health. I feel blessed to feel that way about what I do. Most of my “work” gives me energy, even though I am well past what many think is retirement age. See my blog Build your Return on Life (ROL) from 2014 about Mitch Anthony’s book “The New Retirementality” that challenges the concept of a retirement age as a leftover concept from the Industrial Revolution.

How Old Should I Feel?

I do not advocate that people should not retire because I have not done so. There are many people who have sacrificed enormously to build their career and feed their families. They have traveled extensively, or in other ways, sacrificed family time to do work that is not all that satisfying any more. Finding a way to remove from your life what is draining and add things that are nourishing is a wonderful endeavor. I know many who have focused on their grandchildren to recapture what they lost with their own children’s growing years. That is a fabulous opportunity to recover. Others have found the artist inside them during their retirement, like President George W. Bush.

My misconception of how a grandfather should feel is very apparent to me. Looking at the photo of the man looking in the mirror pretty well captures the gap. I feel like the younger man, and the mirror reflects an older man. I expected to feel like the older man in my 70’s, but I don’t… most of the time.

I know many who think their 60’s and 70’s are the best years of their lives. Maybe the 80’s too …. I just have not asked enough people in their 80’s. That was not my expectation when I was in my 30’s. That was not how I saw my grandfather in his 70’s.

Should We Allow More People to Work Longer?

Many would say, “Not on your life!” and others would find community, contribution and maybe purpose, if they were able to continue to work. Warren Buffet continues to make good investments in his 80’s. The Supreme Court is filled with senior citizens. Many cultures honor the wisdom of age more than the US culture.

There are definitely limitations brought on by aging. There are also strengths that build with continued age. I was blessed with a grandmother who was young at heart and willing to share honest wisdom such as, “Those who talk about the ‘good old days’ have bad memories. It was not all good.”

The companies who can overcome unfounded age discrimination and also make adjustments, where appropriate, to work rules will have a competitive advantage in many industries.

February 2016 – Change Masters President’s Letter

February 22, 2016 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

The interest we have received regarding need for improving remote communications has been amazing. Everyone, it seems, understands the need to communicate better remotely. Interestingly, our paradigm of looking at face-to-face communications in terms of visual, vocal, and content is also very helpful in looking at remote communication. Desktop video-conferencing is quickly becoming the norm for the most effective remote communicators. WebEx, GoToMeeting, Join.me, Skype for Business, and others have dramatically improved the technology.

As leaders, we need to also dramatically improve our use of the technology. For your next desktop conference:

Visually make sure you have good lighting — soft light from the front and no bright back-lighting or distractions. Use a good webcam and fill the screen.

Vocally use a good noise cancelling microphone close to your mouth. Earphones are much better than computer speakers.

Content needs to be clear, concise, relevant and interesting.

The skill of running good meetings has always been important. In remote communications it’s even more important. Here are the basics from our book, as a reminder …

Meeting Basics that Really Make a Difference in Remote Communication

You can decide to have excellent meetings. Even in an environment where meetings are poorly run, you can be the exception. The following guidelines are meeting fundamentals, which can help you display executive presence. They’re common principles, which are constantly violated. The challenges of communication remotely via audio-conference or video-conference make the advantage of the basics even more important!

If You are Running the Meeting:

Be clear about the purpose of the meeting, even if it’s a routine team meeting. Ask if there is a better way to achieve the objective than having a meeting. If it is a regular meeting, can you do it half as often and be just as effective?
Only invite those that can bring value or have a need to know; and be clear about your expectations.
Have a timed agenda distributed well in advance of the meeting. If people only need participate for a small segment of the agenda, let them come and go for their time slot. Indicate if the agenda item is for decision, discussion, or feedback.
Start and end on time (or early if possible). We know a Vice President who locked the door at the start time of his staff meetings. Anyone who was not there was not able to attend. He only had to do this a few times to make the message clear. Start on time even if not everyone is present, because it is respectful to those who do arrive on time.
Be clear why each person attends and be clear about his or her role. Even if higher level people are in the meeting, remember that you are running the meeting.
Stick to the agenda, but promote discussion and debate.
Bring each point to conclusion, and document the conclusion. If there are follow-up actions, be sure the responsibilities are clear and accepted in the meeting by someone who is in the meeting. If the action is for someone not in attendance, someone present in the meeting should have that action until it is accepted by someone else.
Make the meeting interesting. Show a movie clip to illustrate your concept or read an email from a satisfied customer. Break up the routine positively.
Send out minutes with the action items to the meeting participants. Copy those that have a need to know and were not at the meeting.
Seek feedback from participants on how future meetings could be improved. It demonstrates you value their time.

Participating In Meetings with Executive Presence:
If you are a participant invited to a meeting, you can ask the organizer about the purpose and your role in the meeting if they have not already offered that information. You can be selective in the meetings you attend or delegate. Once you decide to attend … participate well. Be a role model for being prepared and engaged in the meeting by doing the following:

Know what you want to achieve in the meeting.
Monitor your talk-time to see that you are participating enough without talking too much.
Pick your battles.
Continually look at the Other Person’s Point of View (OPPOV™) being demonstrated by the other participants.
Be as authentically supportive of others in the meeting as possible.

From Seeing Yourself as Others Do — Authentic Executive Presence at Any Stage of Your Career by Carol Keers and Thomas Mungavan, 2009.

Chief Marketing Officer and the Chief Information Officer Need to Work Together

Humor can be a great teacher …

One dramatic shift in the need to work together is the dramatic change in the relationship between the CMO and the CIO. Matt Ariker, Martin Harrysson and Jesko Perrey from McKinsey report: Getting the CMI and CIO to Work Together as Partners

“The situation reflects a central truth in today’s big data world: both the CMO and CIO are on the hook for turning all that data into growth together. It may be a marriage of convenience, but it’s one that CMOs and CIOs need to make work especially as worldwide volume of data is growing at least 40 percent a year, with ever-increasing variety and velocity. That’s why many CMOs are waking up to the fact that IT can’t be treated like a back-office function anymore; rather, the CIO is becoming a strategic partner who is crucial to developing and executing marketing strategy.”

We have successfully worked with [more …]

Hardest Thing for a Leader

“The hardest thing a leader has to be in charge of is him or herself.”

Dr Henry Cloud

iPhone Tip: Accessibility

magnify_glass_searching_phone_400_clr_9656 I found it by accident. Somehow the phone on my iPhone was magnified so I could actually read it … but only the small part of the screen that was visible. It turns out that by double touching my screen with three fingers, I could magnify my screen. Doing it again sent the screen back to the normal size.

Accessibility functions are designed to assist those with seeing or hearing limitations. If you go to the General Settings > Accessibility there are many options for you to choose from in the categories of Vision (zoom, voice over, gray scale, screen speak, large text, etc.), Interaction (custom gestures, call routing, keyboard settings, etc.), Hearing (hearing aids, LED flash alerts, mono-audio, etc.), Media (subtitles, captioning, audio descriptions) and a Learning section.

Making a Difference One Person at a Time

After 30 years of coaching, we are working with customers where we are grooming the third generation of CEO for the company. It is truly an honor to be a part of such transitions. In a recent dinner with the retiring CEO in one of those companies, he shared how he would not have had the job if we had not coached him to be ready. He wants that for the new CEO who will soon take over for him. It’s very rewarding to hear such comments. That is our mission.

It is not uncommon for us to talk with clients we have worked with many years ago and hear them say similar comments about our impact on their professional and personal lives. We hope to celebrate our 30th Anniversary by collecting some of the touching stories and experiences we have heard from our clients.