What are the best practices for using online platforms to facilitate team decision-making?

2 Prepare and test beforehand

Nothing can derail a team decision-making session faster than technical glitches, poor connectivity, or unclear instructions. To avoid these pitfalls, you should prepare and test your online platform before the session. Make sure you have a reliable internet connection, a backup plan, and a way to contact your team in case of emergencies. Also, familiarize yourself with the platform's interface, settings, and tools, and create a clear agenda and guidelines for your session. You may want to send your team a brief tutorial or a demo of the platform beforehand, so they can also get ready and comfortable with it.

3 Engage and interact with your team

One of the biggest challenges of using online platforms for team decision-making is keeping your team engaged and interactive. Unlike face-to-face meetings, online sessions can make it harder to read body language, convey emotions, or build rapport. To overcome this, you should use various strategies to engage and interact with your team, such as asking open-ended questions, using polls and quizzes, encouraging feedback and comments, using emoticons and stickers, and acknowledging and praising contributions. You should also check in with your team regularly, and monitor their participation and energy levels.

4 Facilitate and guide the process

As a facilitator, your role is to help your team navigate the decision-making process smoothly and effectively. Using online platforms can make this role more challenging, as you may have to deal with distractions, interruptions, or conflicts. To facilitate and guide the process, you should use clear and concise language, summarize and clarify key points, keep track of time and progress, and ensure everyone has a chance to speak and be heard. You should also use appropriate methods and tools to help your team generate ideas, evaluate options, and reach consensus.

5 Follow up and follow through

The decision-making process does not end when the online session is over. You should follow up and follow through with your team to ensure that the decisions are implemented and the outcomes are evaluated. You should use the online platform to share a summary of the session, including the decisions made, the action steps, the responsibilities, and the deadlines. You should also use the platform to communicate updates, monitor results, provide support, and celebrate achievements. You should also solicit feedback from your team on how they felt about the online session, and how you can improve your facilitation skills and techniques.