As Real As You Can Get with Video Calls

All these years, we have been conditioned to having real and physical meetings for business. It has been the main way to close deals and conduct business in the real world. Even with advanced telephony, email and messaging applications, people have continued to travel extensively for work so that they can conduct business over face-to-face meetings. It seemed that in order to build a business relationship, one needed to  give and receive  physical, psychological and emotional sensory inputs.

Sitting face to face across a table or being in the same room has long been considered essential. It gives us a chance to communicate clearly, read each other’s body language, and be able to judge the emotional quality of our responses to each other. In real meetings we are constantly assessing the level of engagement we have managed to create and we get instant feedback on the effectiveness of our ongoing interaction.

It becomes important to know if the person is paying attention to your discussion, or are they distracted,  playing on the phone chat, checking their messages or even dozing off. Do they look well today, are they happy, sad or angry, all these have an effect on the way the meeting is conducted. Even looks and appearances, or the lack of it matter. All this can mean the very difference between success and failure in the achieving the objectives of a business meeting.

Nowadays, Video calls are a part of our daily work and are not being made by choice. We are doing it because it’s not feasible to meet face to face due to the current restrictions of containing a pandemic. We are therefore trying hard to replicate the effectiveness of face to face meetings that we are so used to in the past. 

A video call, when done correctly, could be as close as possible to a real meeting. Therefore, it becomes so much more important that we use the camera function. We are given tools to switch on and off our video camera and microphone, set an appropriate profile photo, share our screen, send data files and such kinds of interaction tools, all designed by the best minds in the industry to give the closest interaction experience of a real meeting. Only serving coffee and snacks is missing. And of course, shaking hands and high fives.

I have noticed in video calls nowadays, many people choose to switch off their video camera. Some don’t even bother to put a profile photo or put a name to their profile. Now, there may be valid reasons to do so, such as being in a room full of family members, or not having sufficient internet bandwidth or perhaps your device has a malfunction. But its mostly lack of preparation or seriousness to get the best out of the meeting. It’s quite expected to switch off an image of you in a webinar where you are only listening and not talking, but if you are an active participant in a discussion, it’s important to understand the importance of skills required in real meetings.

Why do we think it is quite alright to not stay visibly engaged with our superior, peers or subordinates, let alone our clients and partners. How come we start to believe that a voice interaction is going to be acceptable? In a world of life-changing technology, why do we willingly regress back to the voice call technology of 30 years ago?

These are the questions we must ask ourselves as we get ready to adapt to a new normal, because, let’s face it, “things are not going back to the good old days when all of this is over.”

We need to get used to the reality that digital tools can and will give us a near-real experience which allows us to instantly assess the effectiveness of our digital interactions as we  conduct business meetings. Let’s embrace technology and become players, not spectators.

Otherwise, the solution is simple, I would go ahead and do what I would do in real life meetings, ignore the people who are not paying attention, or surprise them with questions and let them know that it is clearly not OK to show a lack of decorum in the digital world, which otherwise, one would care deeply about in the real world.

- Sachin V Gopalan
Futurist Thinker & Social Impact Champion

Making The Right Choice In The World’s Biggest Election

Making The Right Choice In The World’s Biggest Election.

(Written in free verse)

Today, India is a polarized nation. 

Several narratives exist, 

True or false.

Not knowing which is which.

The Right .vs. the Left. 

The BJP .vs. the Congress. 

Development .vs. Stagnation.

Hindutva. vs. Secularism.

Facts and falshoods,

Truths and accusations, 

It sometimes feels like,

living in an Alternative Reality.

Choose any narrative, 

you name it, you have it.

Nothing has been left out in this war,

for winning hearts and minds.

There are two sides, 

pitted against each other,

with carefully chosen issues to,

resonate with a gullible nation

And they are both,

trying their best,

to drag the nation,

into their chosen narrative.

Yes, it looks like many,

have decided their position. 

They seem to know what they want,

or what they have been told to want.

It's not just a nation divided, 

but friends are divided, 

neighbors are divided,

and families are divided. 

Being on the right side is now,

a debate for the breakfast table, 

strong opinions of family members,

on why their side is the right side.

But what if you are a centrist? 

What if you don't believe in either? 

or you don't agree with the ideology 

of either party? 

What if you want more than what's available,

and less of what’s on offer,

What if your choice is,

not available on the menu? 

If so then, how should you choose?

It's definitely an option to vote,

a third choice, a fourth or a fifth.

It's also an option to not choose, 

and just stay home. 

You could spoil your ballot paper, 

be counted as a voter,

but not counted,

in anybody’s camp. 

You need to remember that,

your vote is your voice. 

Your right of choice,

for your choice of right.

If many choose the third, 

it's a way of giving signal,

to the political establishment,

they haven't earned your vote. 

It's a signal to new politicians,

that there is enough support for,

a new third, with potential,

to capture your aspirations. 

That third side, 

if it doesn't yet exist, 

can be given birth,

by you exercising your vote.

If you don’t do something,

this circus will continue,

until either they are gone,

or you are, whichever first.

Don’t waste your vote. 

Choose your new side. 

Perhaps choose two oppositions,

Just choose wisely.

Are You a Leader?

Leadership is one of the most unique qualities in society. Leadership decides the future of a family, a group, a community, a neighbourhood, a religion, a business, a country, and eventually, the direction of the world we live in.

Yes, Leadership decides our future. Good and bad leadership, strong and weak leadership, they all decide our future, one way or the other. Though we produce leaders in every part of our life as a natural outcome of social behaviour, we dont know who are good or bad leaders until after we see the outcomes. We, as people find it easy to place all our faith in some leaders, and if we lose our faith in them, we are back again looking for new leaders to lead, to inspire and to give us direction. Following leaders sometimes can be a roller coaster ride, and yet, we have no choice because, leaders are the only hope that we, as people, have for a better life. They are our voice, our hope and represent our aspirations.

Leadership is also a difficult quality to find. It can be a hidden quality. It can be an unknown quality. And sometimes it can take the person totally by surprise. History has proved time and again that many leaders were not born into a position of leadership, but were thrown into a situation that brought out their amazing leadership qualities.

Today, we are proud to have many great leaders around us. The real crisis is not the absence of leadership, but the absence of a process that brings more and more good leaders forward. A continuous process for searching, identifying, encouraging and nurturing good leaders to lead our society.

For this, sometimes, we need to awaken people, shake them out of their inaction and force them to think about what they can do for the idea of leadership.

The Loss of Voice

By Sachin Gopalan


“If you don’t sit where you are supposed to sit, a stray dog will come and sit there.” This is a famous saying from my hometown, an idyllic resort like state called Kerala, famous today for being a symbol of wasted opportunity in a time of plentiful opportunities. Almost every significant contribution made by people from this state has been for the benefit of other parts of the world.

Yes, I would like to bring your attention to the loss of voice. Your voice, our voice, the voice of reason. We, the educated middle to upper class of society, for various reasons, seems to have lost our voice in the larger picture of what is transpiring in our world today.

Let us take the example of the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks in India. Most Indians today are still recovering from the initial shock and disbelief, which is slowly turning into outrage at the political system and local politicians who seems to be rightfully getting blamed for not doing enough to protect the basic way of life that we seem to have taken for granted. “How can the politicians have done nothing in its aftermath? We must not vote for such people. Let’s abstain from voting to show them our disapproval”. This is a good summation of the thought train hurtling through the mindtracks of decent people all over India. Yet, we forget that we chose to let them be in power, by doing nothing, or not doing enough.

Lets take another issue closer to home, in Indonesia & India where the general and top spot elections are just a few days away. The people are divided into those who want to vote and those who choose to abstain for a myriad set of reasons. “There are too many political parties, I am confused”. Or, “There is nobody that I trust or believe, its better that I don’t vote” or even “my vote is not going to make a difference anyway, so why bother”. This apathy syndrome has caused a worrying trend called GOLPUT or abstinence from voting, a process being popularized by many intellectual persons to show their frustration and dissatisfaction for the existing political system.

And then, there is another contrasting example. The people of United States, dogged by term after term of one particular failed leader, finally got to a point of such despair and loss of self-respect that the educated working class rose in unison to make use of the existing political system to make their voice heard. In a heroic act of defiance, the common man gathered together to teach a humbling lesson to the powers that be, by voting into Presidency a black man who is half white, a Christian with a Moslem middle name, a politically inexperienced man who’s best foreign experience came only from living overseas.

So the question remains. Does it solve anything by not voting? In fact, we will only go deeper into the situation of not having a voice in our own world that we are living in. Its bad enough that nobody cares about what you think, isn’t it worse if we ourselves don’t care about what we think?

The problem today is that everybody middle class who does not vote today or spreads the message of not voting is only proving that they consider the political process as SOMEBODY else's job. We encourage alienation from the very democratic and legal process that can effectively create change.

If in the short term we have no time to be an effective participant, at least in the long term, we can make sure there will be somebody to vote for, because even if u vote for nobody, somebody else will end up getting the job they don’t deserve.

Ask yourself why there is nobody worth voting for... its because you have done nothing to put up a person there to represent your voice. We need to first of all ensure there is a candidate worth voting for and then vote for that person. This is better than not voting.

Be a part of the process, or try and change the process, but don’t shy away from our responsibility, we will only get yet another reason to die of insignificance in our own lifetime.

It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. -- Moliere

The Relative Safety of Distance

In life, we sometimes like to face issues head on. And sometimes, we prefer to take a back seat and just comment or watch. Sometimes we do a bit of both. Sometimes we do nothing, and choose to be oblivious of what's happening, even if its in front our our eyes.

Yet, sometimes, things we say, think or believe in can be communicated more effectively by writing it down to be shared with others. This then allows others to understand what you have to say and they in turn can choose to do any of the above options.

This is The Relative Safety of Distance.