I logged onto the company meeting webex. The screen was taken up with the larger than life faces of the bigwigs, ready to launch into their presentations of graphs and motivational powerpoint slides. The second thing I saw was a chat message pop up to everyone, all 715 people, in the bottom right hand corner. It said:
"Matt, are you going to start with a joke?"
For a brief moment, my heart was in my mouth. Different Matt. The CFO, a guy called Matt who lives in a large kitchen in Minnesota has a habit of starting his presentations off with 'humour'. Nobody was asking me to unmute and ask the entire workforce what's orange and sounds like a parrot. So, it's a good job I didn't.
Anyway, it got me thinking about humour. I think I miss those shared moments. On zoom or teams or webex, all you get is an awkward silence, even if everyone's chuckling behind their mute buttons. Oh what I wouldn't give to be part of a group chortle, even a collective groan! These are the moments that bind us somehow and make talks a whole lot easier for audience and speaker.
In fact, I think we tend to find things a lot funnier when those around us do. There's a subconscious microsecond for processing how funny a thing is and how to fit in with the laughing crowd. Perhaps comedians know this and spend hours trying to build waves of laughter around the room - it gets infectious, a sort of ocean of laughs that sweeps us along on the tide. It certainly can be uplifting. It's a bit of shared humanity I think is important.
Matt didn't start with a joke in the end. He just launched into his 'super-awesome' pree-zentation. It's remarkable how we're all adapting to online speaking and online listening - it definitely feels as though the dynamic is different. Perhaps when we come back to the world of group meetings, of live heckles and collective chuckles, we'll find a new joy in those moments all over again. Together.
If not, we'll all just have to drop our terrible new jokes into the mix and let the tide wash over us, online or not.
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