THE SIGNAL
Andrew Bennett and colleagues tracked 55 remote employees hourly over five workdays and analyzed 279 videoconference meetings (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2021). They found "videoconferences at different times of the day are related to deviations in employee fatigue beyond what is expected based on typical fatigue trajectories."
Two things were linked to lower post-meeting fatigue: turning off the microphone and "higher feelings of group belongingness." The authors call belongingness "the most consistent protective factor against videoconference fatigue." The study was run during COVID-19 remote work, and it reports associations.
BEFORE
Hypothetical: a state agency has a benefits program change ready. Policy, legal and the budget office have each reviewed it. The program director signs off, and she is on her fifth video call of the day, with the change scheduled as item seven on the next one.
The file is ready. The person who can release it is not.
WHAT THE WAIT COSTS
The decision gets a tired director and a crowded agenda, or it rolls to next week's call. The people who built the change join yet another video meeting to answer questions already answered in writing.
AFTER
The director gets one packet: the change, each office's review, the open issues and the related program decisions she made before, each cited.
She reviews it off-camera, approves it with one condition, and the next call is shorter because the decision is already made.
HOW WISDOMTWIN FITS
WisdomTwin.ai is building a sovereign judgment layer for regulated enterprises. It is designed to give each named approver a role-specific judgment twin that prepares the decision packet the way that person reviews, with the evidence attached, so the decision moves faster and leaves an auditable record. It is designed to run on-premises, on-device or in your private cloud, and the named person still makes the call.
We don't replace judgment. We remove the wait.
TRY THIS THIS WEEK
Count your video calls per day this week.
For each one, write down whether a decision was made or only discussed.
Replace one discussion-only call with a written packet and a decision deadline.
SOURCES
Andrew A. Bennett and colleagues, "Videoconference fatigue? Exploring changes in fatigue after videoconference meetings during COVID-19", Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 330 to 344, 2021: https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000906
Examples in this issue are hypothetical, and nothing here describes a customer result.
JOIN US AT WISDOMTWIN LIVE
We're hosting our first-ever WisdomTwin Live, a session on the true cost of meetings: the money, the slow decisions and the toll on the people sitting in them. Prefer a one-on-one conversation first? Book a call: https://calendly.com/romanbodnarchuk
Want in? Comment two words: No Meetings. We'll invite you to the next WisdomTwin Live, or send you the replay if you miss it.
Roman Bodnarchuk
Co-Founder and CEO, WisdomTwin.ai