Roundtable: Digital body language

Melita: Hello, everybody. This is Melita, the ­audio editorRedakteur(in)editor of Business Spotlight Audio, and I’m here in our virtual studio with Richard and Rachel, two of the magazine editors. How’s it going, guys? 

Rachel: Hi, Melita. Great to be here.

Richard: Hello. 

Melita: Thank you for joining me. So, today, we’re going to be talking about digital body language, which is particularly relevant to our team because we do work from different places. Richard and Rachel are in Munich in the office, and I’m based in Spain. So, we do rely on sth.hier: auf etw. beruhen, sich auf etw. stützenrely on online tools, software and videoconferences to stay in touchin Kontakt bleibenstay in touch. So, first of all, guys, I wanted to ask you how much of your professional interaction with others is digital and how much is face-to-facepersönlichface-to-face?

Richard: Well, I come into the office quite a lot, but I still work digitally a lot, too, because we’re not always all in the office at the same time. And I spent nearly two years working 100 per cent remotelyüber Telekommunikationremotely with people in other cities. And now, I think it’s quite normal. So, I’d probably say maybe 60 per cent physically and 40 per cent online for me.

Melita: OK, and what about you, Rachel? 

Rachel: Well, funnily enough, as your colleague, I also work in a hybrid environmenthier: Umfeldenvironment, and ­actually quite a bit of my private communication is digital, too. I’m part of a weekly writing group, and we’re spread across Europe and use video calls to stay in touch, and I also take part in online writing classes, and I check in with sb.jmdn. kontaktierencheck in with quite a few friends on video calls, too. So, now, digital communication has become quite natural, but I worked 100 per cent on-sitevor Orton-site pre-pandemicvor der Pandemiepre-pandemic, and I have to admit I found the transitionUmstellungtransition to video calls quite sudden.

Melita: Yeah, I remember it being quite challenging at the start. I was working part-time at the publisherVerlagpublisher’s and part-time at a school when the pandemic hit, so I had to do a lot of classes online with my students, and that was very difficult, especially in terms ofhinsichtlichin terms of keeping everybody engagedhier: bei der Sacheengaged and check sth.etw. kontrollierenchecking that people were actually following the class. Suddenly, lots of cameras would go offhier: sich abschaltengo off, or people would be eating dinner in the middle of the class, and you’d think, hold on a minute, you know? There were definitely some situations where some lines were cross a lineeine Grenze überschreitencrossed. How do you find digital communication generally, Richard? Do you find it quite natural? 

Richard: Now, I find it perfectly normal, yeah. I do notice that I speak mostly to people who I also regularly meet in person though. So, if you’re new at a company, and you don’t know the people very well, perhaps digital meetings are quite difficult.

I have to say, I do find hybrid meetings trickyschwierigtricky — where some people are there in person in the office and other people are on video. I still feel like the people who are on video are a little bit disadvantaged somehow. Maybe, it’s because the technology isn’t quite good enough, and you don’t feel like you can hear everybody properly. And another thing I noticed is that when you have a digital meeting, people still need to make eye contact with each other. Some people, they obviously have more than one monitor, and they might have the camera on one side, and they’re looking at the other monitor, so they’re looking away from you, which is really distractingstörenddistracting.

Melita: Yeah, that’s such a good pointhier: Argumentpoint. I mean, eye contact is such a natural part of communication. What about you, Rachel? How do you find digital communication?

Rachel: I think you get away with sth.mit etw. durchkommencan get away with being a lot more relaxed and casuallässig, legercasual in a physical meeting. So, you don’t always have to look at the speaker. Sometimes, I find myself looking around the room. And that feels perfectly acceptable. Whereas, on a video call, you do have to constantly appear engaged.

And it feels, at least to me, quite unnatural. But I do think it’s something you get used to with time. And I appreciate sth.etw. schätzenappreciate digital communication for its easeEinfachheitease and the fact that it does allow me to work with people across the globe very easily.

But I think it requires a lot more thought than physical conversation does, because there’s so much room for interpretation. There’s a leadership expert called Erica Dhawan, and she wrote a book called Digital Body Language, which came out in the middle of the pandemic, in 2021, which was very timelyrechtzeitigtimely as we all went online. And in it, she writes, “Never confuse brevityKürze, Knappheitbrevity with clarityKlarheitclarity.” And I think, so often, we’re temptedversucht, geneigttempted to reply quickly to an email or just send a quick thumbs upDaumen hochthumbs up on instant messaging platforms. But actually, really, we should make sure both parties have understood what we’re saying. And I think that’s the challenge of digital communication.

Melita: Yeah, I really agree with you on that one. I know that I’ve made mistakes like that, where I thought “I’ll just send a quick message and it will solve everything in a short amount of time.” Or I’ve put too many people in cc in an email thinking, “This will be a quick fix (ifml.)rasche Lösungquick fix.” And then, sometimes, that has backfirenach hinten losgehenbackfired. It’s always worth thinking carefully about what you’re going to send or how you’re going to communicate something. You know, with video calls, if you just take five minutes and have a cup of tea and just think before actually starting the call, especially if you know it could be a tensespannungsgeladentense topicThematopic or something where there’s likely to be a difference of opinion, just preparing yourself can really help.

I also feel more exposedhier: ungeschütztexposed on video calls than when I’m at a meeting in real life. I think it’s ­because, you know, it’s like a close-upGroß-, Nahaufnahmeclose-up of your face, essentially. So, especially if you’ve got quite an expressive face, which I have been told I’ve got, that can work against you if you have a big reaction to something that then is blown up on a screen.

Do you guys have any tips that have worked for you to improve your digital communication?

Rachel: Going back to what I said before, I think it’s important to prioritize thoughtfulnessBedachtsamkeitthoughtfulness over speed, especially when working interculturally. It always makes sense to proofread sth.etw. Korrektur lesenproofread an email ­before you send it.

And perhaps this goes sth. goes without sayingetw. ist selbstverständlichwithout saying, but I think sometimes it’s good to remember you are at work, even if you’re sat at the kitchen table wearing yoga leggings. Don’t eat a sandwich in a video call, for example, and stay professional. And finally, I think emojis have their place in private communication, but they can be interpreted in different ways by different cultures. I recently read that the thumbs-up emoji is seen as incredibly rudeunhöflich, grobrude in certain cultures. So, I think it’s important that we ensure sth.etw. sicherstellenensure we’re behaving professionally and politely. And I use emojis on Teams, but never in emails or any other communication.

Melita: Yeah, I know what you mean. Emojis in an email feel a little bit out of place. What about you, Richard? Do you use emojis at work?

Richard: Yes, I think emojis have enriched our communication because sometimes an emoji just communicates exactly what you want to say without any words. But it does have to be the right emoji in the right time. And so I also use them in chat a lot, but I don’t like to use them in emails. For some reason, email still feels more formal and [a] more permanent ­record than the chat. So, we avoid them there.

There’s also, I guess, a point that not everybody understands these emojis the same way. There was a court caseGerichtsverfahrencourt case in America about what a thumbs-up emoji actually means, whether it means acknowledgementAnerkennungacknowledgement or whether it means agreement. And so, different people think different things, perhaps. I also think in digital communication, it’s still very important to be polite, just as you would in person and to be precise so that there are no misunderstandings.

Melita: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about your thoughts on digital communication and body language. If any of our listeners are listening to this and thinking, “I have a great tip to help people to communicate digitally in a more efficient way or a great way of looking more open and having better postureKörperhaltungposture and body language on video calls...”, then do feel free to reach out (ifml.)sich meldenreach out and contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

And if you’d like to follow us on our socials, you can find us @business.spotlight_official on Instagram, @business-spotlight on ­LinkedIn or Business.Spotlight, that’s with a capital B and S to start each word, on Facebook, or reach out via email. So, until next time, guys, bye.

Rachel: Thanks so much, Melita. Bye!

Richard: Bye, Melita. Bye.