Implement Team Building Activities In Your Remote Meetings
Donna Schilder, MCC
? Owner of a Boutique Coaching Firm That Provides Executive Coaching / Leadership Coaching / Career Coaching. We help leaders and professionals find fulfillment and step up to the next level. ?
Implement Team Building Activities In Your Remote Meetings is Part 9 of our series on Remote Meetings:
In this post, we’ll look at ways to promote team building and keep people engaged throughout the meeting.
Make Remote Meetings as Interactive as Possible
To keep the participants engaged,?make your remote meetings as interactive as possible. Spread the responsibility for facilitating agenda items?among the team, so that everyone has a stake and stays on their toes. This also helps ensure that the same people aren’t always doing all the talking.
Set Aside Time for Small Talk
Small talk helps to?build the relationships within the team?or group and is especially important for fostering team building in remote meetings. Consultant and author? Chris Dyer says that small talk is important in a brick-and-mortar office, and even more so in remote arrangements. Small talk may include topics like family activities, vacations, hobbies, sports, TV shows, etc.
Start with an Icebreaker
Use an icebreaker to warm participants up and add some fun to the meeting. You can play games like “never have I ever . . .” and list things like “been in a traffic accident,” “sung karaoke,” or “gotten a tattoo.” You can also ask questions like, “Who is your celebrity crush?” or holiday-themed ones like, “What was the one candy you always hoped to get on Halloween?”
Share the List of Attendees
Post the list of attendees on the screen so that everyone knows who is there. Most meeting platforms have a chat space where you can post such a list.
Keep a List of Participants On Hand
Keep a checklist of the names of the participants in front of you, so that you can create balanced participation by calling on quiet attendees by name. Let people know you may be calling on them at random, so they pay closer attention. As an alternative, you can use the next suggestion.
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Create a Batting Order
Determining the order that you’ll call on people ahead of time will ensure participation is open to all and makes participation less time-consuming. This can help avoid awkward silences that often accompany asking a question and waiting for volunteers to answer. Even if a participant doesn’t have anything to add, this will keep them on their toes.
Keep An Eye On Facial Expressions
Scroll through the participant screens to see how they’re reacting to the topic and adjust your approach as needed. Are they anxious, disengaged, frustrated, happy? For example, if several people look frustrated, you might say, “I’m sensing that not everyone is on board here. Who has a concern?”
Prevent Extroverts From Taking Over
Intervene when a participant dominates the conversation. No doubt there will be introverts and extroverts on the team. If an extrovert is doing most of the talking, you may say something like, “Now let’s hear from the rest of the team.”
Split Up Presenting Duties
Give topics to different team members to present, so that you’re not the only presenter of information. Not only does this make the meeting more interactive, but it also helps ensure people don’t get bored. After all, variety is the spice of life!
Employ Team Building Tools in Remote Meetings
Use team building activities in your remote meetings to enhance them. These are similar to icebreakers but make a good activity for a break. Some ideas:
***This post was originally written and published on?DonnaSchilder.com
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1 年Always valuable to remember that just a little foresight and planning can make your meetings so much more efficient and worthwhile