Remote meeting rules, how COVID-19 is changing our social media and can New Zealand beat the virus? Readings from around the world on business, leadership and management.

The new rules of remote meetings

The new rules for communicating in a virtual world include being more emotionally open. Credit: Martina Martin/Adobe Instagram

Standing two metres apart is not the only new social skill we are learning, with everyone switching to remote meetings. Over at Adobe, they have suggested eight rules for communicating in a virtual world.

They suggest a good way to start an online meeting is to take the ’emotional temperature’ so you can better understand where people are coming from, this can be done via emojis or a quick chat.

It is recommended you be more emotionally open yourself, given the digital world has a way of stripping us of honesty, from fake backgrounds to ‘touching up our appearance’.

The story also proposes sharing some non-work moments, making sure everyone on the call has a role and taking regular breaks.

COVID-19 changing our social media habits

There were 12,065,000 active Facebook Messenger users in Spain in March, when the country went into lockdown. Compared to February, the number increased by 10.5 per cent. In the months leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak, the number was rising at a significantly slower rate. Credit: Napoleon Cat

The new locked-down world has not only caused a surge in social media usage but is changing the way we interact with these platforms, says a comment piece on Channel News Asia.

Social media usage is up a huge 61 per cent globally but engagement is also higher as people use social to stay abreast of updates on COVID-19 and connect with friends and family. The result is a move away from the more narcissistic tendencies – say selfies by the pool – and a move toward more public-spirited usage such as free cooking classes and global online benefit concerts.

The virus is set to reshape society in many ways, and it may improve our sometimes-fractured relationship with social media platforms.

Can we beat COVID-19?

Dr Norman Swan. Credit: YouTube screenshot

On the latest ABC Coronacast podcast, Dr Norman Swan looks at whether island nations like Australia and New Zealand – and Papua New Guinea – have a chance to actually eradicated COVID-19.

Swan suggests that it could be achieved with a slightly more severe lockdown, extensive testing and contact tracing. Once again the key rate to beat the virus is to have 80 per cent of the people in a country social distancing.

Eradication is the goal of New Zealand and the country says it could achieve this in as little as a month. The regular podcast also looks at mental health strategies for isolation.