Social distancing is a must to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but don't lose the opportunity to collaborate that effective meetings provide.
This week has been a scramble for many of our clients who are canceling in-person meetings as a proactive risk reduction strategy in response to the COVID-19 virus. This isn’t a bad idea, in fact as The Atlantic stated in their byline of the article Cancel Everything, “ Social distancing is the only way to stop the coronavirus. We must start immediately.”
But Wait!
Don’t remove the meeting from your calendar just yet.
At SWIM, we are thinking about how to balance cancellations of in-person meetups while retaining the momentum of co-creation that happens when precious hours are held on our calendars.
With a few tweaks, we are shifting the meetings and conferences to online platforms and refusing to lose opportunities to capture great ideas and move missions forward. Whether it is a 90 minute session or a day and a half workshop, we have some tips to help you socially distance yourself while remaining focused on your goals of collaboration and learning.
Here are 10 Tips for Better Virtual Meetings. Click the links below for a printable version of the guide or to schedule a coaching session.
DO Get the Tech Right
Virtual meetings rely on great tech. This may seem obvious but cannot be stated enough. Nothing derails a great conversation faster than echoes, call or internet drops, and background noise. If virtual meetings are to be a regular part of your business, it’s worth investing in a great software platform like Zoom or WebEx and hardware like web cameras and headphones. It’s also important to test everything out in advance with as many participants as possible, especially for important meetings and presentations.
DON’T Mix Methods
To the extent possible, consider leveling the playing field by having all participants join in the same way. That means having everyone at their own computer with their own video connection. This can seem strange at first, especially if some people are joining from the same office, but it helps tremendously in making sure everyone can be seen and heard equally. If you must host a hybrid meeting with some in-person and some virtual participants, you’ll need to work extra hard to make sure the virtual participants are included. Use more round-robins and prompts to specifically invite input from each person. It also helps to have a sign or other visual reminder of the names of those on the phone or computer as a reminder to all participants to include them.
DO Encourage Video
Especially for tense meetings and difficult subjects, being able to read facial expressions and body language is essential. In advance of any virtual meeting, check in with participants about their technology and encourage everyone to participate from a computer with a web camera… and then encourage them to turn it on! This won’t be comfortable for everyone at first and may require persistence, but it’s worth it. Video also makes it much easier for facilitators to know when someone is trying to talk and help avoid people talking over each other.
DO Set Ground Rules
One of the biggest issues with virtual meetings is a lack of understood norms for participation. Things that would not be tolerated in person like answering phone calls, sending emails, and having side conversations often go unchecked in virtual settings. For groups that will meet regularly or important discussions, setting ground rules makes a huge difference. This can include things like encouraging video as mentioned above as well as reminding people not to mute or multi-task and help encourage active participation and accountability.
DON’T Wing It
Any successful meeting or event requires preparation and structure. For virtual meetings, plan to spend twice as much time and provide even more structure. Virtual participation can be difficult, and people often don’t know how to jump into group conversations effectively. It’s important to think through your goals and design activities that will engage your participants. Skip the boring report-outs (everyone will check email during them anyway) and jump right in with tools like a live poll asking everyone to weigh in on a decision or an open a shared Google Doc where everyone can contribute their ideas to a brainstorming session.
DO Send Out Materials in Advance
Not only do facilitators need extra preparation time for virtual meetings, participants do too. Make sure all participants get materials in advance, including readings, reports, and agendas so they can effectively contribute. Agendas should reflect the ground rules mentioned above and make clear the kind of participation that you’ll be expecting. This is a great way to signal that this won’t be the kind of meeting you can multi-task during! This also ensures participants have what they need in front of them even if their tech fails.
DO Get Personal
Virtual meetings don’t offer the opportunity for small talk in the same way that in-person meetings do and can end up feeling very formal and dry. Especially if a group only or mostly meets virtually, you’ll have to work even harder to facilitate relationship building. First, make sure everyone gets introduced and then encourage the use of names as much as possible. Participants should use their name every time they talk to make sure it’s clear who’s speaking. Include a prompt question with introductions that encourages more informal sharing and personal connection. Take time for relationship-building. For distributed teams this can mean having everyone give a “virtual tour” of their workspace or funny activities like sharing your favorite cat videos. Different activities will work better for different groups, but make sure to build in time for structured fun at the beginning and end of meetings whenever possible.
DO Get Creative
Instead of trying to recreate in-person meetings in a virtual space, leverage the platform for enhanced productivity and engagement. Use tools like Google documents for real-time co-creation so the work being decided in the meeting starts happening right away. People often best take in information visually and virtual meetings offer even more options for capturing their attention and keeping it. Use an online word cloud generator to give a quick visual sense of how everyone is thinking about the topic. Show video clips demonstrating common problem scenarios and role-play responses. Make a live mind-map to show connections between team members lines of work.
DO Make the Most of Online Tools
As mentioned above, virtual meetings offer new and different options for engaging your participants. This includes ways of engaging people with varying styles and strengths. Introverts might prefer to share in the chat box. Multi-taskers want to contribute in different ways simultaneously. Visual learners will more quickly grasp concepts. Consider having multiple facilitators involved or tasking participants with managing specific platforms so that you can effectively synthesize contributions from a variety of sources throughout the conversation. Use a tool like Sketchpad to draw a concept and have others add to create a shared, visual understanding of a topic. Many platforms offer the ability to break into small groups for discussion and brainstorming.
DO Hold Yourself (and Others) Accountable
It is tempting to zone out and make less effort in virtual meetings. It will require continued effort and reminders to stay on track with your planning as a facilitator. It will also require accountability for participants to learn a new way of engaging online. Use the process of creating and agreeing to ground rules as a tool for empowering everyone to remind each other when they aren’t being followed. Encourage everyone (including yourself!) to minimize temptation for distraction by silencing your phone and other notifications, closing extra windows, and putting a “do not disturb” sign on your office door.
Download a printable FREE Guide below.
Watch our website for more resources about how to take common meeting effectiveness tools into virtual meetings. Click the link below if you would like a Coaching Session with one of our consultants to help take your in-person meeting agenda online.
Author: Stacy Van Gorp