10 Best Practices for Effective Video Meetings

With offices still partially or entirely closed and more work being conducted over distances and time zones, video conferencing has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life for millions of office workers. Of course, occasional meetings are necessary just to conduct daily work, but no one wants to spend the whole day online in meetings. How can?leaders of remote or hybrid teams ?make video meetings as effective as possible to maximize productivity?

Use these 10 video conferencing best practices to help?keep your virtual meetings effective :

1. KEEP THE MEETING AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE

The ideal size for an effective video meeting is seven people or fewer. Of course, if your team consists of more than seven people, a team meeting might be difficult—especially across a video conferencing screen. Consider breaking your team into more than one group.

2. MINIMIZE OR BAN EXTRA DEVICES

Establish rules for video meeting etiquette ahead of time. Obviously, people will have to use a device of some kind to participate in a video conference, but ask them to leave phones at the door, perhaps, or ask everyone to go into airplane mode. If people like to use laptops or tablets to take notes, ask them to use paper and pens instead. The point is to minimize distractions as much as possible.

3. KEEP IT SHORT— NO LONGER THAN AN HOUR WHENEVER POSSIBLE

Attention wanes after an hour. If a longer meeting is necessary, at least be sure to build in breaks for people to walk around and take care of personal needs.

4. ALLOW PARTICIPATION AWAY FROM THE SCREEN

Let people know that standing and walking around is acceptable if they need to do so. Allow people to call in via phone rather than the computer so that they can stand. Whenever possible, let people know that they can turn off their cameras and just participate by voice. Using cameras requires a lot of extra energy, and people who have spent all day in video meetings may need a break from the camera.

5. MAKE SURE EVERYONE PARTICIPATES, AND CALL OUT THOSE WHO DON’T

At times it can be tough to jump into the conversation on a video conference, so as a meeting facilitator, pay attention to those who may be hesitant to participate. Give everyone an opportunity to talk, ask questions, and make contributions. Encourage people to use virtual tools as well; they can raise a hand virtually or drop questions, comments, and links into a chat window.

6. AVOID HOLDING A MEETING JUST TO UPDATE PEOPLE

Meetings—especially in a hybrid or remote world—should have a clear purpose and results-focused goal. What is the purpose of this meeting? What outcomes do you want to see?

7. FOCUS ON DECISIONS

Likewise, keep the meeting focused on the outcomes you want to see—the decisions and solutions that need to come out of the meeting.

8. ALWAYS SEND AN AGENDA OUT AHEAD OF TIME – AND BE CLEAR ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THE MEETING

A meeting agenda shows a great deal of respect for the meeting attendees. It communicates your own preparation and intention and gives them an opportunity to prepare their own questions and contributions.

9. MATCH TIME WITH THE VALUE OF THE TOPIC

Small-value topics should involve short meetings. Large-value topics should require longer meetings.

10. TAKE NOTES AND FOLLOW UP

If you can’t take notes because you are presenting, ask someone else to do so. Make sure you send out notes or PowerPoint decks after the meeting.

Our human brains are still adapting to the world of virtual meetings, and it will take some time for everyone to develop the right etiquette and approach to make them comfortable. By keeping meetings effective and productive, leaders can?make video conferences more useful ?and improve the experience for everyone on their teams.

A version of this article was originally published on Stewart Leadership's Blog .