Although virtual meetings have become a norm of working life post COVID-19, there is much that still feels strange about them. Be it physiological difficulties caused by staring at a screen for hours at a time or psychological troubles resulting from the knowledge that your face is being projected onto other people’s screens, there is still much we have to learn about virtual meetings.
Below are 10 tips on how to re-energise virtual meetings, to ensure they remain a productive tool for businesses and employees working from home.
1. Enable connection
Shyness is a common struggle for people in virtual meetings, where they are not as forthcoming with their contributions as they could be. This is likely to happen where people are complete strangers or do not know each other well. In this environment, people may fear what others think of them. One solution is to give people an opportunity to become familiar with one another prior to the meeting. According to Forbes, allowing attendees to play a light-hearted icebreaker game before the meeting is a good way to turn strangers into acquaintances. As noted by the PigeonHole blog, gamification is a good way to encourage two-way communication, boost participation, and incentivise active listening. Actively encouraging employees to include their pets or kids on the call is another good way to break down barriers.
2. Avoid ‘zombification’
Fatigue can set in when one person or a few people talk whilst others remain silent. During this time the other attendees become zombified – staring blankly and passively at their screen and losing the ability to turn back into an active participant.
Keep things inclusive by asking questions, formal or not. For example, you could start a meeting with a light hearted question about people’s pets, favourite pastimes, or what they believe is a least known fact about them.
3. Create common ground
A good way to build positive relationships is to give people a common point of interest. Having this dispels the dilemma of not knowing where to start the conversation.
One way to create common ground is to play a game at the start of the session, as suggested in point 1. Another way to build common ground is to invite a guest speaker onto the call for the first 10 minutes. This can create a platform for fruitful conversation.
4. Adopt the ‘no-where to hide’ principle
Another dilemma with online calls is that some employees feel that they are able to participate less and fly under the radar. A common tactic that attendees use is not turning the camera on so as to hide behind a black screen. Picking on people during the meeting by asking direct questions is a good way to ensure that people do not interpret virtual to mean ‘invisible’. If no one knows to whom the next question will be posted, everyone must remain attentive. Don’t allow attendees a place to hide. Show them that a virtual room is just as demanding as a physical one in terms of attention, participation, and individual visibility.
5. Follow the MVP rule
According to Harvard Business Review, MVP stands for Minimum Viable PowerPoint. This amusing acronym draws attention to the notion that having lengthy PowerPoint slides does not make for an engaging meeting. Having fewer slides allows more time for interaction and gives the presenter time to ensure that the attendees have understood the key takeaway message.
6. Why are we here? Have a clear objective
The tendency in the new virtual world of work is to meet for absolutely everything. Virtual meetings appear to have replaced emails, leaving employees with days filled with meeting after meeting. This can leave little time left to do the work.
Clarify the purpose of the meeting at the beginning. This signals to employees that this is not just another time waster. It tells employees why they are there, why the meeting is important, and why they need to pay attention to what is coming next.
7. Show that you see your attendees
A virtual meeting led by one person who monopolises most of the talking time risks making the other members of the meeting feel disempowered and devalued. They may feel as if they are being spoken at rather being spoken to due to the lack of engagement. During an in-person meeting engagement can be achieved by making eye contact with the people in the room. However, during a virtual meeting a presenter needs to adopt other strategies. One approach is to look for signs of understanding or confusion in the faces of the attendees. For example, noting that a member of the call appears confused (“Mark, you look a little lost, can I clarify this for you?”) shows the audience that you see them and are taking note of their reactions. Adopting this approach can help people on the call to remain present, as they know that the presenter is paying attention.
8. Have a back-up plan
Whilst most are aware that technical issues can arise when operating virtually, few have a backup plan. There is a wide range of potential problems that can derail your meeting, and having a backup plan for each contingency is just as important as your plan A. For example, if your material is visual, have an audible version ready in case the document fails to load or your screen cannot be shared. If you are sharing key information, have two presenters ready to go in case one presenter’s internet drops out or their microphone stops working.
9. Ask attendees to stay unmuted
Having microphones universally muted dissuades participation. Attendees have to actively decide whether their idea is good enough to press unmute. Attendees may also interrupt each other when they talk, as it is difficult to tell when two people are unmuting their microphones at the same time. Provided there is no background noise or interference, having microphones unmuted is likely to encourage more fluid, fluent, and dynamic communication.
10. Use facilitators
The dread of anyone hosting a virtual meeting is that they will ask a question that is met with silence. However, often what happens is that after one person breaks the silence by volunteering a response, others will then follow suit. Placing a person in the meeting who has the task of breaking the silence (unknown to the rest of the group of course) can help to dispel these concerns and encourage conversation.
Sukhi R. is a graduate from Warwick Law School currently studying an MSc in Business with Consulting at Warwick Business School. She has a keen interest in the business psychology of consulting and plans to enter the industry in the near future.
Image: Pexels
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