Unlocking the power of effective meetings

?? Highlight of the month

Unlocking the power of effective meetings

“People always moan about how meetings are useless, and you have to do everything asynchronous, and then you have to do it this way and that way. I think that's all bogus because we also have to, as leaders, find out how someone works in their preferred way.”

The first episode of the Build Further Podcast with Leah Tharin was full of soundbites, but this one resonated a lot. It may seem strange, considering we're building an asynchronous video collaboration platform. But we were never on one end of the spectrum and have even written blog posts about meetings.

Serious talk? It's been three years since the pandemic hit us and we’re all a bit tired of people trying to impose their way of doing things. Sure, no one has good memories of early 2020 when we suddenly found ourselves trapped in back-to-back meetings. But in 2023 many of us also started to feel a bit too disconnected from our peers and losing a sense of belonging.

We’re more convinced now the solution is not fully async. We need to find a hybrid model of work that unites people. One that captures the efficiency and other benefits of working asynchronously while still providing the personal connection of meeting with colleagues.

How? A few ideas from the community:

1. Prep async and discuss in-sync. When we don’t prepare meetings, we tend to run out of time and usually when we’re getting to the good discussions. So when you record your updates and share them ahead of the meeting, you can use the live discussion to brainstorm the best solutions.
2. Reduce attendance by recording your meetings. While it makes sense to have live user research sessions or team retros, the rest of your team can catchup on the insights on their own time.
3. Solve complex problems with enriched discussions. When the solution for a problem requires careful consideration, Claap allows you to record your proposals, collect feedback from everyone and your team can see other people’s comments to add on to the discussion. It’s brainstorming on steroids.

???Great discussions

• Sarah Robb O'Hagan , CEO at EXOS, points out an article from the Washington Post with suggestions on how to enhance the effectiveness of video meetings, reduce fatigue, and foster better collaboration.
• Shelby Wolpa , People and Culture Advisor, shares her takeaways on what’s next in workforce technology, particularly the need for continued investment in "the four C's" - compliance, culture, connectivity and collaboration.

???Cool findings

• Working remotely doesn't have to mean you can't have fun with your colleagues. That's why we're sharing two of our favorite games here at Claap: the online version of the board game Catan and Gartic Phone. Have a look, laughs guaranteed.
• Futurepedia is the largest AI tools directory. You can browse 600+ AI tools in 40+ categories like copywriting, image generation and video editing.

???From the Community

• Gladia just released their Audio Transcription??, a tool that can transcribe 1h of audio in as little as 10s (psssst.. it’s coming to your claap videos soon!)
• Jitter launched their motion design tool on Product Hunt and was the #1 Product of the Day! Huge congrats ??
• Slite released “Ask by Slite”, an AI assistant that answers questions based on your team's documentation ??

That’s all! And remember…

Get in touch if you have cool things to share or would like to feature what you’re working on ??