‘It’s time to end ‘death by Zoom’ and reconnect with nature’

Way back in 2015, I blogged about meetings on the move rather than remaining sedentary in board rooms.

Probably no more than five people saw it but I really wished that someone somewhere would grab it, run (walk) with it and make it a thing in a way that I – with my tiny influence base – could not.

Now, with our world in the depths of a pandemic and a national lockdown, there is a growing yearning for what we used to take for granted, back when life could be a walk in the park.

How do I know this? Because usually, my LinkedIn posts rambling on about my geeky world liberation plan get no more than a few hundred views, virtually no comments or likes and then they disappear into the ether.

But then I made one tiny plea to reconnect with nature by walking during phone meetings instead of video calls, and suddenly I got 164 likes/loves/claps and the post continues to be seen (upwards of 7,502 views now!). Is this what almost trending feels like?

To summarise for those who don’t have the time to check my post, I tried to make the case for not making Zoom/video calls the default option, especially where screen shares and assimilation of reams of papers are not required.

We have one hour of exercise allowed during our national lockdown here in the UK. There will be a few who use this for actual exercise. But for those of us who don’t we could use it to walk around a park or nearby green space (mobile reception allowing), and simply do our meeting via headphones.

Walking in nature is good for our souls. Our mental health needs at least a couple of hours in nature a week. At a time when many are feeling increasingly anxious and fearful with all the uncertainty in our lives, this has never been more important.

Don’t chain employees to desks for the duration. Right now, we need our teams to be more creative than ever. Breaking things up by “walking and talking” achieves that in an elegant and sustainable way.

In response to my post, there were many kindred spirits who really wanted this to be ‘a thing’. A new, acceptable way to conduct the business of meetings. But within this desire, I felt there was resistance and I’ve finally realised what it might be.

It is very easy for someone like me, a free agent, a director of an (albeit tiny) business, to be able to change the rules of engagement. I simply suggest it and well, there’s very little pushback because I’m at the very least, the co-author of the agendas of most of my meetings. This is almost certainly not the case for employees within larger organisations.

Jaya is calling for employers to #EndDeathByZoom – image by Melaine Virot of TISCreport.org 

Different companies have different rules of engagement and so the onus is on the manager, the CEO, the board, to obtain and/or give permission to do things differently. At the end of every corporate decision is a human being one way or another, and somehow we need to get back to that.

So, after many requests from folks to do so, I’ve written this article to help start those conversations with folks outside of the LinkedIn bubble.

If you think that someone you know needs this catalyst to help them reconnect their teams with nature, share this article, or find or write a better one. I don’t care how it happens, but it’s within your power to change the game mechanics if you choose to, in unison with others.

Indeed, it’s how the inhumane but previously culturally acceptable practice of footbinding in China was finally put to rest (and it’s how I believe we’ll end modern slavery, but that’s another story.).

Today was a case in point for me. My walk-n-talk transformed from PhD interview on collaboration between organisations to a discussion on the interconnectedness of us within this universe. It reminded me that we must reconnect first with the planet upon which we depend for our air, our water, our lives before we can meaningfully take action to save it. So my three-step plan is simply this:

• Reconnect with nature.
• Reclaim your headspace.
• Save the world*.

And it begins, unsurprisingly, by voting with your feet.

#MakeItAThing #WalkWithMe #EndDeathByZoom

Jaya Chakrabarti wants people working from home to be able to reconnect with nature – photo courtesy of Jaya Chakrabarti

Jaya Chakrabarti is the co-founder and CEO of the award-winning tiscreport.org and is leading the development of VANA, a new app to tackle deforestation.

Main photo courtesy of Jaya Chakrabarti 

Read more: The digital activist harnessing data to help save the planet