Put your little yellow hand up if you like a break from all those Teams calls. Or whatever you do on Zoom. Because for most of us it seems like the last few months has been one very, very long video conference.
No-one now can explain why, when we had the technology, we hardly used it. But since we’ve had little choice, we’ve somehow managed to make it work – with apparently no need for hours of training or drawn out implementation project plans.
Of course, it’s not perfect (is it that hard to get your whole face in the shot?) but the way we’re using it is evolving very fast. I’ve certainly chaired some much better meetings recently. They’re becoming better organised, more focused and most important of all, quicker. And you still don’t need to find £2 for the parking. Or to allow 40 minutes to get there and back.
It’s probably that convenience factor that makes this a really interesting development, especially when it comes to enabling multi-agency work.
We’ve seen lots of benefits when it comes partnership working. For example, in children’s services we’re finding that using video conferencing is leading to improved participation in special educational needs review meetings – especially from our health colleagues. Joining a video call from the surgery, police station or school is always going to be a lot easier over the internet than traipsing to the town hall.
Like the mystery of why it’s taken a pandemic for us to get into video conferencing, I don’t know why we ever thought trying to get colleagues from a whole range of different agencies from all across a city or county together in the same room was ever going to be anything other than really difficult.
We’re all busy. Video conferencing helps us do more. Or maybe it removes the reason (or excuse) colleagues might have used to not participate. Whatever it is, it’s working. Why would we go back?
Michael Bracey is chief executive of Milton Keynes Council
