Keeping your virtual meetings productive

By Gale Mote / Guest Editorial

It is challenging enough to plan and facilitate a productive meeting when all of the participants are sitting around a table, face-to-face. The reality of today’s workplace is that a majority of meetings are virtual, with one or more participants joining the conference from a different place, and often, a different time zone.

Today’s leaders must be exceptionally skilled at planning, preparing and facilitating meetings using technology while keeping participants engaged and focused. The first key to success is realizing and accepting that virtual meetings are different. Do not expect to facilitate an audio or videoconference the same way you would manage a staff meeting.

Always begin by asking the question, “Why do we need to have a meeting?” What is the purpose? What are the planned deliverables or desired outcomes? If the goal is to primarily share information that will result in a one-way communication flow, consider another option. Meetings are most effective when it is necessary to have a two-way flow of information where problems are solved, decisions are made and plans of action are created.

Next, determine the technology platform that will best support your agenda. Some platforms such as Google Hangouts and Citrix GotoMeeting do not have advanced features such as whiteboards, annotation capabilities and polling. Adobe Connect and WebEx have the most comprehensive features for virtual meetings. These are essential to keep meetings interactive and interesting. It is important that the platform allow for the use of a moderator – someone other than the meeting leader who is an expert with the software, can monitor chat and backchannel communication, and assist with any connection issues.

A detailed meeting agenda should include more than the topic and time allowed. In virtual meetings, it is necessary to also prepare how you will facilitate each discussion item. For example, if the next item on the agenda is to present the current process flow and solicit ideas on how to improve, detailed agenda notes should include what tools will be used to gain the necessary interaction from all participants.

Perhaps you will share the current process on a PowerPoint slide, and then use a round-robin format to go through the roll call of meeting members to gain their perspective on opportunities to improve. These ideas will be recorded on the interactive whiteboard (similar to a flipchart in a meeting room.) Another option would be to use polling questions to gather feedback and perspectives.

Technology can be your best friend and your worst enemy in a virtual meeting. I am sure many of you have been on a conference call where some participants couldn’t log in or the tools were not functioning properly. This immediately contributed to the meeting starting late and some members disengaging before the meeting even started.

The leader and moderator should always be in the meeting room 30 minutes before the start of the meeting to test the technology and make sure all is good to go. Always request meeting participants to access the platform 10 minutes before the desired start time so there is time to troubleshoot any glitches. In some cases, it may be necessary to offer an orientation to those who will be attending the meeting and are not familiar with virtual tools.

Just like in any presentation, the meeting opening sets the tone. As the leader, thank everyone for joining, and inform them of the purpose and desired outcomes or deliverables from the meeting. Create energy by focusing on the benefits to them of accomplishing the meeting objective. Authors Michael Wilkinson and Richard Smith of “Click: The Virtual Meetings Book,” suggest using the words “you” or “your” at least four times in the message. If you are not excited, forget about your participants catching the spirit. Be sure to help everyone see the important role they play in the meeting and why they were asked to attend.

In virtual meetings, a roll call should be made visible to everyone in the meeting and include their name, department, title and location. Having people respond when their name is called helps others associate their voice with their name. If there are multiple people in each location, ask someone to be the “eyes in the room.” If people look disengaged, confused or have something to add, this person is responsible for making sure that the meeting facilitator stops and makes any necessary adjustments.

To keep participants from muting their phones and checking their email, it is important for the meeting leader to utilize a virtual engagement strategy about every 10-20 minutes. Examples include round-robin brainstorming where the roll call list is used to solicit feedback, or breaking out into small groups and then returning to capture ideas on a whiteboard. Polling and chat rooms are also a way to keep participants engaged by allowing them to respond to questions in real time and/or send messages to an individual or group while the meeting is in progress.

If nothing gets done, meetings are a waste of time. Virtual meetings require the use of documentation boards to record action items and decisions made. Another useful board is the “parking lot” or “issues” board, where ideas/concerns not relevant to the meeting are captured for future review.

Virtual meetings are here to stay. As a leader, you can keep them interesting and productive by incorporating some of these techniques to build commitment, demonstrate respect and drive positive results.

 

 

 

Gale Mote is a trainer, organizational development catalyst and coach in Cedar Rapids. Contact her at galemote@galemoteassociates.com.