Would you ask participants in a face-to-face meeting to put duct tape over their mouths when they are not speaking?

Of course not. So why have we made ‘default mute’ the norm in online meetings?

When I facilitate virtual sessions I ask people to only use mute if there’s a distracting noise in the background.

The possibilities for connecting with each other are massively improved when we can hear each other’s laughter, exclamations, murmurs of agreement and all other noises we make when we interact in normal, everyday life.

Yes, having mics open can result in the odd interruption from a dog, a child or a bit of good old fashioned road drilling – but that’s life in all its glorious technicolour.

Sure, if there are lots of people on the call then mute may be a good idea – but I think by and large we can put the duct tape away so we don’t have to speak into the void.

If we trust people to use their mouths wisely in person, we can trust them to do the same online. And there are tons of ways to make a conversation flow and ensure people take short turns and build on each other’s points.

On top of that there are a bunch of ways to spotlight people or use different views to ensure that the right people stay on camera.

In improvisation classes most coaches I know ask people to show the love by keeping their mics on. It’s not just about hearing laughter and encouragement – it’s also about letting silence be real silence.

Silence is powerful. It tells us a lot – about what things mean, about how we feel, about what matters to the audience – but the artificial silence of ‘default mute’ robs us, and has a deadening, dehumanising effect.

Of course you may want to go on mute to cover the sound of tapping on a keyboard while you do your emails. Maybe you could just leave the meeting instead.

So let’s stay unmuted, support each other and let silence speak for itself.

Here’s a class mime act: ‘The boy with tape on his face’