Our shared global experience of avoiding in-person meetings has been an intense social experiement. You may have had some terrible virtual meetings during the COVID lockdown; or perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some transformational experiences virtually.

We’ve certainly seen the benefits.

For starters, there are the financial benefits. Reduced travel costs. No venues or catering. Less time spent in traffic.

Then we have the social benefits. Virtual platforms often level the playing field of how organisations work. Chief executives take up the same screen real estate as everybody else. And that can enable more inclusive work environments - meaning more people can contribute their best work to their organisation, more often.

And of course there are the environmental benefits. You only need to think back to those quiet and sociable streets to understand the benefits of fewer cars on the road, and fewer planes in the air.

So when we heard Theresa Gattung issue a challenge on Radio NZ, we got in touch. Her challenge was for NZ organisations to achieve a 20% reduction in in-person meetings beyond the end of the COVID lockdown.

You can read more about our thinking from our interview with the National Business Review below.

When the Covid-19 lockdown hit, the immediate reaction from clients of planning and strategy consultancy Business Lab was to put work on hold.

The Nelson-based company had a clutch of traditional face-to-face engagement projects on the go, set to last anywhere from one to five months.

“The four clients involved were looking at postponing or cancelling,” director Colin Bass said. “We had to work really hard to present another alternative to them that gave them the confidence to continue with the work we’d already agreed.”

Business Lab had never done it before, but was convinced it could conduct the programmes just as well online.

Three out of the four clients trusted the firm enough to take that leap, he said.

“The virtual world has enabled us to do what we’ve done for 20 years pre-Covid, but more effectively and more cost-effectively for the client.

“If you follow certain protocols, we can do more than what we were doing having 140 people in a room.”

Bass and his team are now adamant that running programmes on platforms such as Zoom is more efficient, more inclusive, and better for the environment.

They are so sold on the idea that Business Lab has set itself the goal of permanently reducing face-to-face meetings by 20%, and of encouraging the business community to do the same.

Theresa Gattung’s challenge

A challenge laid down by businesswoman Theresa Gattung inspired the firm. As a result of her experiences during lockdown, the professional director and investor has also committed to cutting her face-to-face meeting time by a fifth.

The shutdown proved that a good chunk of the New Zealand economy could operate with people working from home, she said.

She had already been using Zoom, and believed the Covid-19 restrictions had opened Kiwis’ eyes generally to how good all the platforms such as Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts are now.

“What’s taken me by surprise is the notional resonance you can get across the tech, and also the efficiency.

“You can do what might have been a three or four-hour board meeting in two, and that’s without hopping in your car and driving across the bridge from somewhere in Auckland.”

It was also more inclusive, as she found on calls for the SheEO network of women entrepreneurs. Virtual meetings enabled women from all over the country to join, she said.

“Literally, women from Eketahuna and women from Auckland, and women from Christchurch. It really is quite a leveller to all be there in your living room or your office. It’s quite a Kiwi way of doing things in a way: no hierarchy.”

Gattung is not advocating 100% virtual communication, saying a mix of remote and on site working was probably the aim. But lessons learned in lockdown were worth taking forward, she said.

“Less business travel is certainly not going to reduce business productivity; at the very least, it’s going to be neutral, and it’s going to allow the environment just to breathe.

“I’m just going to think more carefully about ‘do I really need to hop in the car to go to that meeting or can I do it online?’. It’s personal responsibility.”

Productivity booster

In its new report Connected New Zealand: Our digital path forward, the BNZ said Kiwis continued to work long hours for below-average household incomes.

“We cannot continue to rely on growth in the labour force as the key driver of economic growth.

“It follows that New Zealand’s key economic challenge is to move from a model of economic development based on ‘working harder’ to one based on ‘working smarter’.

“Rebuilding large swathes of our economy following the Covid-19 pandemic and adjusting to virtually no inward migration means that now is the time to seriously advance this agenda,” the BNZ said.

Bass believes virtual meetings can contribute to New Zealand’s poor productivity record if they’re done well.

He gave the example of Business Lab’s longstanding work with the Marlborough District Council delivering an award-winning programme called Smart and Connected.

“But I had to drive over the hill two hours (between Nelson and Blenheim) to go to every meeting. Right now, I’d be recommending there is no need for that travel.”

As a result of Covid, organisations are only now learning how to run great virtual meetings and Business Lab is busy developing a set of protocols.

The most fundamental of these is one person, one computer, Bass said. People needed to move on from the old idea of a group crowded into a conference room looking at a single screen.

“When there’s one person, one computer everyone’s even, it’s a level playing field, and what we’ve found is an increase in participation because it’s a safer environment.”

One of the clients Business Lab is conducting virtual tutorials for is Auckland Council.

“They felt the virtual environment created a safer place for people that would not normally go to a community meeting. Those are beautiful places for hecklers to take over,” he said.

Organisations such as local and central government needed to set the example, and he was disappointed to hear of two ministerial work programmes that were reverting back to the pre-Covid status quo where travel was mandatory.

Business Lab has also teamed up with sustainability consultancy Proxima to try and measure the impact meeting virtually can have on carbon emissions.

“Simply making a commitment not to travel and conference as much as we did prior to Covid-19 could be New Zealand Inc’s easiest opportunity to make a transformational change,” Proxima executive director Simon Harvey said.

New Zealand has an opportunity to build a powerful movement of leaders from all sectors who are committed to sustaining a reduction in in-person meetings to help the country meet its Paris Accord commitments, Business Lab and Proxima said.

Want to maximise the benefits of virtual collaboration?

Working together on important opportunities in a virtual world requires some new skillsets and toolkits. You may be finding it hard to know where to start. Our Beginner’s Guide to Collaboration and Engagement Tech Tools may be the starting point you need.