We are closing in on the end of May, and many of us have been at home hosting or sitting on virtual calls at an unprecedented pace. Looking back over the past four weeks, I've hosted or participated on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WebEx, and Google Hangout. The volume is staggering — and it raises a question that most professionals haven't stopped long enough to ask: are you actually connecting on these calls, or just showing up?
The Scale of the Shift
Zoom reported in April that as of December 2019, the maximum number of daily meeting participants was approximately 10 million. By March 2020, that figure surpassed 200 million daily participants — and that was still early in the crisis. The volume surge forced Zoom to respond to a wave of technology and security challenges almost overnight.
Zoom wasn't the only one that had problems. We as communicators had to adjust. How do you connect when you can no longer rely on live, in-person meetings? Overnight, the world experienced a shift that will be reported on, written about, and studied for generations. The question is whether you've leaned into how you communicate — or fallen victim to the technology.
The Communicator's Challenge
As quickly as technology had to adapt, how did you as a professional communicator improve? At Braintrust, we work every day with individuals on how to use communication skills to connect, serve, solve, and add value in ways supported by decades of science. The methodology doesn't change whether you're live or virtual.
So here is the question worth sitting with: are you the Director of a "connecting virtual picture" in your conversations?
Because most people aren't. Most people open virtual calls the same way they open an in-person meeting — with pleasantries, logistics, and a rapid pivot to the analytical. And on video, that pattern is even more costly than it is face to face.
Two Critical Brain Networks
Our Driving Change podcast is releasing a new episode featuring Dr. Tony Jack, a neuroscientist from Case Western Reserve and a member of my dissertation committee. In 2018, Tony and his colleagues published an award-winning study that was later discussed on the podcast hosted by Jeff Bloomfield (Boyatzis & Jack, 2018).
In both the article and the podcast, Tony discusses the importance of two critical networks in our brains:
- The empathic network — associated with connection, imagination, creativity, and openness to new ideas
- The analytical network — associated with logic, analysis, problem-solving, and critical evaluation
These two networks are largely suppressive of each other. When one is activated, the other tends to quiet down. Decades of research supports the power communicators have to influence decision-making and behavior change by accessing these networks in a deliberate sequence.
The Analytical Trap in Virtual Meetings
Here's why this matters so much in our current environment. Every call seems to open the same way: "How are you holding up? Where are you located? Are you working from home? How are the kids? Is this all as crazy as I think it is?" These questions pound the analytical network and make it very difficult to genuinely connect with the people on the other side of the screen. And this pattern often runs for the first several minutes of every call.
We as communicators need to be even more intentional about how we show up in the virtual world. The empathic network is what opens minds to new ideas, creates genuine connection, and builds the kind of trust that moves conversations forward. The analytical network, while essential, tends to create distance when it dominates the opening of a conversation.
Becoming a Virtual Director
If you want to be a "virtual director" in your communications, you have to be able to draw on stories, pictures, metaphors, and analogies that activate the empathic network. The best storytellers know how to paint a vivid image even when they can't pick up a brush.
Yes, you can share screens, use PowerPoint, or leverage drawing tools. But here's the honest warning: practice it before you try it in front of a customer. Some people still struggle to come off mute.
The methodology doesn't change just because the medium did. What changes is how much more deliberate you have to be about creating connection when you can't rely on physical presence, body language, or the informal exchanges that happen before a meeting starts.
Five Practical Tips for Virtual Connection
Here is a formula for creating a connecting virtual picture that flows with — rather than against — how your brain works:
- Start with a connecting story and your customer's objectives (minimize the COVID conversation) — this opens the empathic network and anchors the conversation in what matters to them.
- Discuss your customer's challenges — this engages the analytical network at the right moment, after connection has been established rather than before.
- Describe a vivid picture through an analogy or story — return to the empathic network with a mental image that makes the challenge feel real and the solution feel possible.
- Demonstrate value by serving and solving your customer's challenges — analytical again, grounded in evidence that connects directly to what they've already told you matters.
- Close with connection as you discuss next steps — finish in the empathic network so the conversation ends the same way it began: with the human on the other side of the screen feeling genuinely heard.
If you practice this formula and create vivid pictures in your customer's mind, you will leave an impression that goes beyond the content of the call. The best communicators can create a virtual image through the words they choose and the stories they tell — no screen share required.
What to Do Next
I encourage you to check out the Driving Change podcast, get out a notepad, and plan to listen more than once. Listen to both the episode with Dr. Tony Jack and the companion episode featuring Richard Boyatzis. Both will change how you think about communication — whether you're across a conference table or across a Zoom grid.
The science hasn't changed. The room has. How you show up in that room is still entirely up to you.
References: Boyatzis, R. E., & Jack, A. I. (2018). The neuroscience of coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 70(1), 11-27.
If this resonated, start a conversation with Braintrust about how NeuroSelling and NeuroCoaching principles can transform how your team communicates — virtually or in person.
