Nothings Virtually The Same

I am now being asked daily about how to turn physical meetings into virtual meetings. It’s amazing how many types of meetings we have every month and how many of them are physical, so to suddenly move to a virtual world is a big change for people.

The main thing people focus on is how to turn the agenda they have into one where participants are remote, the focus is on the technology to bring people together not the content or format of the meeting itself. This not only as a mistake but also a missed opportunity.

Firstly, taking a one-day team meeting and just doing it ‘on video’ is not going to be great for anyone. To be honest was the meeting that good when it was physical? So, to now put everyone on video and trudge through the same presentations is going to make it even worse.

Secondly you can think completely differently and deliver a whole different list of benefits, by being untethered from a physical location, attendee list restricted by cost/availability and time constraints the original meeting can be something completely different and may be even a whole lot better.

So a few ideas on how to approach -:

Think objective and output first – why is the meeting being held? What is it meant to achieve? Who is it aimed at? It’s often really revealing when you check these out, the most frequent response is ‘we always have them to communicate’! Getting to the real objectives helps frame the requirements.

Timing – Taking away the physical location and logistics attached really changes the thought process around time. Without time boundaries consider splitting the communication across several days, ask participants to do some fact finding or learning between sessions then check for understanding during the ‘live’ times. This also helps those working from home by building a sense of on-going community and involvement.

Attendees – Often the number of employees at meetings is shaped by budgets and location, by going virtual this can be revisited and an extended set up personnel can be included which helps in communication, motivation and message consistency.

Involvement – There are now plenty of platform tools from Google, Microsoft and Zoom which enable real time interaction with the audience, from chat to polls you can gain feedback and even allow the participants to change the course of the meeting by voting on topics. If you are running the meeting allocate another team member to own the chat responses and contribute around them. As the person running the meeting it’s almost impossible to do this and keep the meeting going.

Different and fun – It’s tough to be engaged fully even through a short meeting, making things entertaining and fun helps. We pick different virtual backgrounds, encourage wearing something to represent an occasion (Christmas, Sporting event etc) and generally make sure attendees are there to enjoy as well as communicate.

Physical needs – I know this is obvious but making sure agendas have breaks in them is essential, build in 10 minutes for people to get a coffee or have a bio break. Realistically virtual meetings should not be that long but if they are ensuring people have time to stand up, stretch and refresh away from the call.

Record – One major benefit of virtual meetings is that you can record and have transcription on. Especially with multiple nationalities being involved it’s always tough for everyone to keep up and understand. By recording meetings and having a transcript the participants can revisit the parts they need to check on being able to read as well as review. In addition, the meeting can be sent to a wider audience if required.

Finally, Technology – Once all the above has been considered and you have a great meeting format which is different, engaging and meets your outcome requirements you then obviously need to ensure the technology is right including audio, cameras and microphone.

In challenging times like this my final thought is around making sure people have some time and space to talk things through and connect to fellow team members. We have always had a regular ‘beer’ meeting where our multi country leadership team jump on a 90-minute call with no fixed agenda, the only mandatory thing to have is a beer (alcohol free allowed!). These meetings can cover absolutely anything and often stray into all sorts of areas which become beneficial to the group. Due to our current situation where everyone is working from home, challenges are changing almost hourly and people are rightly worried and concerned, we have started a 30 minute daily virtual 'coffee catch up’ for 30 minutes, these are not mandatory but allow anyone to catch with their team, share a virtual coffee and feel connected.