Conducting Virtual Meetings - The Golden Rule

I confess. I have done the following in virtual meetings:

? Multitasked

? Been distracted

? Dozed off

? Taken the phone into the bathroom

? Taken the meeting off on a tangent

? Been too long-winded in making a point

? Tried to make an important point while on mute

? Have rarely looked into the webcam

? Not raised a question because I want to get off the call and get on with important work

These are not good practices, and I have tried to do better. There are many lists of tips for successful meetings, but I think there is one golden rule:

Design virtual meetings for interactivity

What a virtual meeting leader must do is to design a meeting with someone like me in mind, i.e. someone who is easily bored, who is often distracted by the multiple things swirling in his/her head, who is already thinking about the next meeting, and who is under pressure to meet deadlines.

There are different types of virtual meetings utilizing various technologies, and I can’t cover them all here. Here are some general tips for making virtual meetings interactive:

? Involve participants in creating the agenda; it helps create engagement

? Create a team space where participants can share and review information (e.g. status updates) before the meeting; this allows meeting time to be used for discussion and decision making

? Have participants check into the meeting with a very short statement about what they want from the meeting

? Limit the meeting time to an hour; if an hour isn’t enough, take regular breaks going forward

? Have a slide of a conference table with pictures of the participants in different places

? Invite participants to interact throughout the meeting, not just in ‘question time’ at the end

? Call upon people by name to give their views

? Keep the meeting momentum going; don’t spend too much time on one slide

? You might want to halve your typical slide count to keep the meeting moving forward

? Keep text on slides to a minimum; when people have to read a lot it’s hard to maintain energy

? Use all of the virtual tools you have available:

o Online breakout rooms for small group discussions and brainstorming

o Chat for participants to ask questions, make comments, and propose ideas

o Polls/questionnaires for surveying how participants feel about issues and ideas

o Whiteboards for exploring ideas and action planning

? Ask all participants at the end if they got what they wanted from the meeting

Think about forming a meeting team:

? Leader: Person who sets the goal(s) for the meeting and designs for interactivity

? Producer: Takes care of technical issues

? Facilitator: Supports the leader in designing for interactivity, and keeps the meeting on track and on time

If meeting leaders follow the golden rule they might stand a chance with people like me.

Original source - https://www.tmaworld.com/our-thinking/golden-rule-conducting-virtual-meeting