Authentic Connection via Video?

How do we establish trust and emotional security through video conferencing? An introduction to a series of explorations.

I’ve been a student of the psychology of relationship building for a long time. As someone in business development who loves to network (read my thoughts about networking here), the way that we build relationships through the window of technology is fascinating to me. The people who do this well will end up with a significant advantage over those who struggle to connect.

The New York Times just published an article about why Zoom sucks (paywall). Obviously there are security concerns, but I’d guess that as a startup, security may have been secondary to a critical path. The large tech companies all have platforms that compete with Zoom (or they will soon, if they don’t already). These include Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Skype to name a few.

In a series of articles, I will explore topics related to exclusively connecting via a technology window. I’m extremely curious about how people establish authentic relationships, how burnout and fatigue are different in online interaction, professional challenges with large group meetings (conferences), specialty applications of video chat (music lessons), and social cues/norms for online gathering.

For example, what replaces a handshake? How do we read subtle cues of body language like eye contact or mirroring? And what happens to bodily mirroring or tactics of active listening like small affirmations as a speaker is talking (yes, uh huh)?

Please read along for a series of deep dives into these topics as I explore how we can do this well, together.