Let’s zoom in on what makes virtual meetings work

Let’s be honest; for many of us meetings didn’t work before Covid-19. Like with so many things during this crisis, the cracks in our meetings culture have been exposed and are more visible in the virtual world. It looks like virtual meetings are a reality for some time to come, and even when we come out the other side, it might well be something that forms part of everyday life, hopefully alongside some face-to-face time.

Many of us are zoomed out, let’s zoom in and see how we can improve our meetings, making them more effective, engaging and enjoyable.

Any meeting has three components on which you can intervene. The Task, the Process and the Climate. The Task is the objective - the outcome we are seeking to achieve, the purpose of the meeting. The Process is how we get there – the timeframe, structure, who needs to be there, the agenda. The Climate is the atmosphere in the ‘room’– the quality of the relationships, the level of trust, the level of fear, conflict, etc.

Most meetings attend solely to the Task and some don’t even consider that. Those who aim to do meetings well often attend to the Process too. The Climate tends to be forgotten. As a facilitator my work with clients often focusses on the Climate, simply because it is the most overlooked component of meetings, yet it is the one that makes or breaks a meeting. Here are some tips for all three components. See which ones you do already and which ones you could do with more emphasis on.

The Task

Be clear about the purpose of the meeting and communicate it to participants ahead of the session. Is it to share information, to collect information, to learn, to educate, to connect participants, to engage people in something? Once you are clear on that, it will inform how you structure the session and what you need to do to create a conducive climate.

The Process

Limit the time

Parkinson’s Law states “work expands to fill the time available”. Why do meetings go into the diary for one hour? Do all meetings require that amount of time? Surely not. Some might need 15 minutes, some might need longer. A pure information giving meeting might need less time. A meeting where you are seeking engagement and action, will most likely need longer. Consider the time you allocate in light of your objective.

Beware of shorter attention spans

Our attention spans are shorter in the virtual world. It’s tough looking at a screen all day. It affects our ability to stay present. Kate Murphy’s article Why Zoom is terrible explains this beautifully.

Hence, keep your inputs to a maximum of 5 minutes. If you speak for longer, know that people will switch off, your message will get lost, lack of engagement is the result. A client of mine asked me to deliver an input and help design the process for a virtual large group meeting. I suggested the three speakers (I was one of them) keep their inputs to a maximum of 5 minutes. In the rehearsal I took 8 minutes for my bit. My point. The intention to keep it short isn’t enough, it takes practise to shorten what you want to say, to keep what matters in and cut what doesn’t out. I thought I was brief but ended up speaking for longer than I needed to. Importantly, I was able to cut it by three minutes once I applied a structure to my content. We often waffle because we are not clear about what we want to say. We do our thinking whilst talking out loud. That really doesn’t work online. In my facilitation I have noticed the importance of clarity in instructions and inputs in the online world. Of course that’s important in the real world too but it’s even more important virtually.

Vary activities

One of the secrets of successful facilitation is to vary activities during a meeting. Mix inputs and presentation with interactive sessions. In many of the virtual meetings software packages you can go into breakout rooms. Vary the size of breakout groups – pairs, three, fives, etc. Use the functionality available – the chat function, whiteboards, screensharing, voting options etc.

Engaging people doesn’t happen by ‘telling’ them what you think or need from them. If I had a pound for every time a leader said to me ‘But I’ve told them…’…’Telling’ doesn’t engage people. It doesn’t shift anything. If you want to engage people, you need give them an opportunity to make what you said relevant to them and their world. Let them think about it by giving them time to reflect or time to debate.

The Climate

Do check-ins at the start of meetings

In a face-to-face meeting you have the chit chat before the meeting. It’s natural, people have side conversations – these are harder to do virtually. Make space for a little intro, inviting everyone to speak (when people have spoken once in a meeting, they are way more likely to speak up again). Provide a simple structure, include something that is about the person, not just their role. It creates a more human atmosphere. Why I’m delighted to be here today, what I’d like to get from the session, an image that sums up how I’m feeling today. You can screenshare an image and ask people to pick something that represents how they are feeling, or you can use voting. Be creative.

Do some contracting – the secret spice of any interaction

Contracting is about setting the frame so everyone knows what’s happening and why and how they can play a part in it. It’s agreeing and aligning how we want to work together. It’s asking people for their input, what are their constraints, what do they want / need from the meeting, from other people, from themselves. Contracting is about defining what is in and what is out. It’s setting up the rules of how we want to work together. You might have come across it as the ‘rules of engagement’. Five minutes spent here can save you a lot of unproductive discussion. Typical contracting topics could be: How do we want to handle interruptions (hand raise, just speak up), let other people finish, listen to people, say when you agree with someone etc.

Finally, apply your own creativity to meetings. Don’t do what you always did i.e. transfer what you did in the real world into the virtual world. Come up with ideas, use your strengths to surprise, engage, have fun. There’s plenty of research to say that we learn more and are more engaged when we have fun. Enjoy your next meeting and the one after that!