Zoom Calls Are Fine. But They'll Never Replace a Real Conversation.
I am not anti-remote work. Rocket Farm has always been flexible. We work with clients and team members across time zones. Video calls are part of how we operate. But let's be honest about something: Zoom is not the same as being in a room together. And for the kind of work we do, that difference matters more than people want to admit.
When your internal content lacks alignment, your team notices.
It signals a lack of clarity. If your organization cannot speak with one voice, it suggests the strategy itself might be unclear. Teams may start to wonder if leadership knows where things are headed or if they even believe in it themselves.
It creates friction. Inconsistent content means every team is starting from scratch. No shared templates. No unified messaging. No clear standards. That inefficiency can compound quickly across any organization or team.
It weakens your internal brand. Your employees are your first audience. If the content they see every day feels disjointed or generic, it undermines the culture you are trying to build. In otherwords, your customers are downstream from your employees –– and if your employees are confused on the messaging, they’ll only amplify that dissonance. People disengage when they do not see intention behind the communication, so think about how that ripples to your customers/clients.
What Gets Lost on a Screen
Video calls are efficient. You can jump on a call, knock out a meeting, and move on. No commute. No conference room politics. Just the agenda and the work.
But efficiency is not the same as effectiveness.
Here is what I have noticed gets lost when everything happens on a screen:
The sidebar conversations. Some of the best ideas at Rocket Farm have come from the five minutes before or after a meeting. Someone mentions something off hand. Another person builds on it. Suddenly you are solving a problem you did not even know you had. That does not happen on Zoom. Everyone logs off the second the meeting ends.
Reading the room. You can see faces on a video call, but you cannot feel the energy. You miss the body language. The hesitation. The moment when someone is about to say something but does not. In person, you catch those cues. On Zoom, they disappear.
Real collaboration. Whiteboarding on a screen is not the same. Sketching ideas on a napkin is not the same. Walking through a concept together, pointing at things, moving pieces around, that tactile, messy, collaborative process does not translate to a grid of faces on a monitor.
Trust building. Relationships are built in the margins. The coffee before the meeting. The lunch after. The random conversation that has nothing to do with work but everything to do with getting to know someone. You can build relationships remotely, but it takes longer and requires more intention.
I am not saying video calls are bad. They are a tool. But like any tool, they have limitations.
When Face-to-Face Actually Matters
There are times when being in person is not just nice to have. It is necessary.
Kicking off a big project. If we are starting a major engagement with a client, I want to be in the room with them. I want to see how their team interacts. I want to read the dynamics. I want to have the kind of open, unstructured conversation that builds trust and alignment. That is hard to do on a screen.
Creative workshops and strategy sessions. When we are developing brand voice, building a narrative framework, or working through messaging strategy, being together makes a difference. The energy is different. The ideas flow differently. People engage differently.
Tough conversations. If something is not working, if there is tension, if we need to get on the same page about a hard decision, I would rather have that conversation in person. Nuance gets lost on video. Tone gets misread. In person, you can navigate difficult topics with more care and clarity.
Building team culture. Remote work is great for execution. It is terrible for culture. Culture is built in shared experiences. Inside jokes. Team dinners. The moments that have nothing to do with deliverables but everything to do with why people want to work together.
The Hybrid Reality
Look, I get it. Remote work is not going away. And it should not. Flexibility matters. People have lives. Not every meeting needs to be in person.
But we have over corrected.
We have optimized so hard for convenience that we have lost sight of what makes creative work actually work. And creative work, at its core, is a human process. It requires connection, collaboration, and trust. All of those things are harder to build through a screen.
At Rocket Farm, we are intentional about when we go in person and when we stay remote.
Internal team collaboration? Mostly remote, but we make time to be together for strategy work and culture building.
Client work? We push for in person kickoffs and key milestones. The day to day can happen on video, but the moments that matter? Those deserve real conversation.
What This Means for Internal Comms and Creative Teams
If you are leading an internal communications function or a creative team, this is worth thinking about.
Yes, video calls are easier to schedule. Yes, remote work gives people flexibility. But if your team never sees each other, if your leadership never sits down with employees face to face, you are missing something.
Employee engagement is not built on Slack messages and town hall Zooms. It is built on real connection. And real connection is hard to manufacture through a screen.
So ask yourself: When was the last time your team was actually together? When was the last time your leadership had an unscripted, in person conversation with employees?
If the answer is months or years, that is a problem.
My Take
Zoom is fine. It works. But it is not enough.
If you want to build something meaningful, whether it is a brand, a creative team, or a relationship with a client, you have to show up. Not on a screen. In person.
At Rocket Farm, we believe in doing work that matters with people we respect. And that kind of work requires more than video calls.
If you are looking for a corporate communications agency or brand storytelling partner who will actually show up, not just dial in, let's talk. Book a discovery call, and we can figure out if we should meet in person.
