IN THIS CHAPTER

Debunking some popular conceptual Zoom myths

Setting the record straight on Zoom’s communication limitations

In this chapter, I dispel some of the most common myths about what Zoom can do and how to make it stick inside your organization.

Note that these myths apply to Zoom’s most popular offering: Meetings & Chat.

Zoom Is No Different than Legacy Videoconferencing Tools

Say that your organization continues to rely upon a 1990s-era videoconferencing application. You think it is just as good as Zoom. By that rationale, when it comes to basketball, I am as skilled as LeBron James.

Those last two statements are patently ridiculous. I couldn’t hold a candle to King James on the court when he was 15 years old, never mind now. The same holds true for antiquated videoconferencing tools born decades ago.

As Chapter 1 describes, the quality of Zoom’s core technology and code base exceeds that of its predecessors on many levels. Yes, those legacy tools may still technically work on older devices running ancient operating systems. To claim that they are as powerful, user-friendly, and extensible as Zoom is ludicrous.

Zoom Is Fundamentally Insecure

When COVID-19 arrived in the United States in earnest, Zoom usage surged by an astonishing 2,000 percent over the course of three months. Consumers were using the enterprise communications tool in ways and at a scale for which Zoom had not prepared. Zoombombing became a thing, the FBI became involved, and the company faced severe public criticism. (Chapter 9 covers this subject in far more detail.)

When it comes to security and privacy, Zoom certainly hasn’t batted 1.000. Make no mistake, though: Zoom’s services have never been fundamentally unsafe to use. That’s not to say, however, that Zoom could not have done better.

Faced with arguably its most significant challenge to date, Zoom responded well. The resulting backlash prompted the company to shore up its wares even more. Today, Zoom’s tools are more secure than they were at the end of 2019. I suspect that the company will continue to make progress in this area. After all, as a company, Zoom has never been complacent.

If you’re looking for a completely secure and hacker-proof application or software program, good luck with that. You’re more likely to see a unicorn.

Zoom’s Customers Use the Tools in a Uniform Way

There is no one right way to use and configure Zoom’s suite of tools. This flexibility is a feature, not a bug. One of Zoom’s primary strengths is the latitude that it affords a wide range of users. For example, a small group of friends will configure and use it differently than a 20,000-employee healthcare organization. You can say the same thing about schools, law firms, financial institutions such as banks, and plenty of other types of organizations.

Not every person, department, group, or organization will find Zoom’s user interface and features as intuitive as others.

Zoom Ensures Flawless Business Communication

Hogwash. Zoom is no panacea for poor individual and group communication. As I wrote in my 2015 book Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It (Wiley), no tool is.

Consider Hudsucker Industries, a fictitious company that has embraced Zoom. Employees can still engage in pernicious intra-office politics and backstabbing. Zoom doesn’t preclude mansplaining, office gossip, or anything of the sort. Moreover, employees will sometimes misinterpret their colleagues’ messages or motives, even when using Zoom. Some of those disconnects will be disastrous.

Zoom is just like any tool: You can use it constructively and destructively.

Zoom Decimates the Need for In-Person Communication

No, no, a thousand times no. Zoom’s suite of tools doesn’t replace the need for in-person communication.

Say that Geddy and Alex are colleagues who sit down the hall from each other. Both are in the office on Tuesday afternoon. Yes, they can discuss the quarterly sales numbers via Meetings & Chat from their desks. Still, they should probably just find a physical room and hold the meeting in person. If Gavin, Steven, and John are all on different continents, however, it’s downright silly for them to board planes to hold a 15-minute meeting on a relatively unimportant subject.

Use your judgment.

Beyond that obvious example, a little humanity is in order. Sure, you could lay off longtime employees via a videoconferencing tool, such as Meetings & Chat. Anna Kendrick’s character Natalie Keener attempts to do as much in the excellent 2009 movie Up in the Air. Alternatively, you could use it to break up with your significant other of six years. (I suppose that Zoom is marginally better than text here.) Just because you can, however, doesn’t mean that you should.

Zoom Eliminates the Need for Email

Imagine that I sell widgets. You and I meet at a widget conference, and we exchange business cards. You’re in the market for the very types of widgets that my company sells. You ask me to send you some more information. In this scenario, I’m an avid Zoom user, and you’ve never heard of it. What’s more, you’re old school and don’t like trying new apps.

I could invite you to Zoom and insist that we use it as our primary or even exclusive communications medium. That move may not be wise, however. Remember that I’m introducing friction into the process — and possibly costing me a lucrative widget deal as well. If you refuse to use Zoom and I don’t budge, then you’ll go somewhere else for your widgets.

Brass tacks: Zoom does not eliminate the need for email. For certain types of communications, emailing someone a note or file may be easier, especially if that person works for another organization.

You Can’t Overuse Zoom

I remember the first time that I visited Las Vegas. At the time, I was attending Cornell University and getting my master’s degree. In March 1996, three of my friends and I descended upon Sin City during our spring break.

Trust me. I’m going somewhere with this little yarn.

Of course, we hit an all-you-can-buffet — a rite of passage for Vegas rookies. If my memory serves me correctly, we went to the Rio, waited in line for 90 minutes, and promptly gorged ourselves. Like all stubborn men, we paid our $20 each and were determined to get our money’s worth. My friends and I weren’t going to let the buffet win. To this end, why not try just about everything in sight? After all, whether you ate a little or way too much, the price was the same.

Pizza? Check. Chinese food? Check. Dessert? Check. I remember stuffing myself so much that I thought that I wouldn’t eat again for the remainder of the trip. Homer Simpson would have been proud of me.

The same gluttonous mindset exists with new, overly exuberant Zoom users.

Perhaps Tom wants to hold a videoconference call with his colleagues to brainstorm over new product ideas. Maybe Verna wants to check in with her college friends during a global pandemic. To be sure, using Zoom in these scenarios makes sense.

In other instances, however, the logic for using Zoom is suspect. Consider the following:

• Leo needs clarification on a simple instruction in a Slack message.
• Johnny forgot to attach a file in his group email.
• Bernie forgot to include the title slide in her PowerPoint presentation.

In these cases, scheduling a proper Zoom meeting to discuss the issue doesn’t make a great deal of sense. It’s best to use a different medium.

Zoom Is Too Expensive for Our Company

Any employee, group, department, and organization can begin using Meetings & Chat for free at any time. Should one of those entities decide to upgrade, Zoom requires minimal up-front cost. The same concept holds true for Zoom’s webinar add-on. What’s more, using Zoom isn’t a binary. If it makes sense to purchase a limited subscription for only certain employees, have at it.

Rather than thinking exclusively about Zoom’s out-of-pocket expenditures, though, contemplate the implicit costs of poor communication on the job. Do your subordinates, peers, or bosses tell you that your tone in emails is unnecessarily harsh? Wouldn’t it be easier to convey difficult messages to others when they could see your face and hear the tone of your voice?

On a different level, say that you’re experiencing a problem with your computer. Wouldn’t a five-minute screen-sharing session with the IT help desk quickly identify — and possibly diagnose — the problem? Isn’t that scenario better than exchanging 15 emails with the support folks and wasting valuable time?

Foolish is the soul who doesn’t consider these legitimate business costs. Used properly, Zoom can more than pay for itself.

Zoom Won’t Integrate with Our Key Enterprise Technologies

Say that your employer uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system that the IT folks cobbled together back in the mid-1990s. The clunky system runs off of a mainframe, and no one has updated it in years. In this case, then you’re probably right: Zoom won’t automatically connect to your legacy application. One-click calls to prospects or customers are pipe dreams.

Absent that, however, it’s likely that Zoom’s services play nicely with the productivity and communication tools that just about everyone at your organization currently uses. As Chapter 7 covers, Zoom’s App Marketplace lets users easily connect with more than 200 different applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and many others. For their part, teachers and professors who use Blackboard, Canvas, and other popular learning management systems (LMS) can integrate them with Zoom with a few mouse clicks.

Our Workers Don’t Need a Tool like Zoom

I’m rolling my eyes. I hate to break it to you, but people who think that their colleagues effectively “collaborate” exclusively via email and old-school telephones are misguided or downright delusional. They just don’t know the meaning of the word.

Even if everyone in your small company routinely shows up at work, what about when employees are traveling? What about video meetings with clients, prospects, and partners?

Only Hipsters at Tech-Savvy Startups Use Zoom

Folks who believe this statement are living in a world of make-believe As Chapter 1 discusses, Zoom’s users and customers run the gamut. You can’t pigeonhole them into a single company size, age, industry, or even geography.