Most businesses now conduct remote meetings as a way of life. However, the main problem with these meetings is to keep participants engaged and interested. This post offers some suggestions for making these conferences more successful.
Make Your Online Meetings More Productive
Not only have remote meetings become the standard, but the same idea also applies to remote employees who must converse with everyone else. And, of course, some clients or vendors need to collaborate with internal teams daily.
All of these instances suggest that online meetings are here to stay. However, the most difficult aspect of these meetings is keeping people engaged and interested because you can’t see and hear everyone as clearly as in face-to-face encounters.
The first step is to figure out how to make these meetings more interesting and productive. Is it possible to use the same set of rules that apply to in-person gatherings in online meetings? Or do you need something different?
Let’s take a look at some ideas that might be effective. Some may appear to be quite basic, yet they may significantly impact how these meetings function.
1. Get Everyone To Know Each Other
This is, without a doubt, the most basic technique. Ensure everyone who will attend the meeting if the video isn’t used, including photos of those attending on the wall. It transforms the voice that other participants hear, making them more likely to participate in a conversation.
2. Start With An Icebreaker
An icebreaker is an excellent vehicle for breaking the ice between people and establishing a good mood at the start. It lowers tension and breaks down social barriers, making participants more willing to contribute.
Icebreakers can take the form of questions, trivia, or anything as enjoyable as a virtual game. Virtually any icebreaker you do in person may also be done over video conferences.
3. Ask Your Team About Their Thoughts, Questions, or Ideas
Before you create the meeting agenda, get input from your team. Perhaps they have thoughts or brainstorms they’d want to pursue. Perhaps they want to spend time educating themselves about a topic that will assist them in their work.
4. Create A Well-Defined Agenda
It takes a lot of work to organize a meeting via computer, so it’s best not to waste more time during the event. If you have an established and well-defined agenda, participants are more likely to be engaged. Share the agenda ahead of time with others to know what they must contribute and plan accordingly.
5. Make It Interactive
Meetings that are not interesting to attend are unpleasant to sit through. Making your meeting entertaining is crucial. Use effective visuals or lively interactions to spice up the proceedings from time to time.
Allow people to play a virtual game around the meeting’s topic or conduct a poll during the session to get feedback on a crucial subject.
You could also develop ideas for the subject under discussion through virtual trivia or flashcards. Consider using Raptivity, a strong yet simple interactive creation tool to create such digital interactions.
6. Make Small Talk
Small talk creates a sense of bonding between people. A passing remark on the weather at your house or a joke that makes everyone laugh is enough to get people talking. These mental distensions, which span only a few seconds, allow people to relax with the entire situation.
7. Have A Clear Goal
They should all have a clear goal and takeaway to get the most out of meetings.
8. Don’t Spend Too Much Time.
Don’t make participants’ attention spans span too far with extended meetings. When conducting a meeting, 30 to 60 minutes is a reasonable duration. Keep to the original schedule and avoid having the atmosphere get tense.
9. Send Short Notes to Summarize
The minutes of the meeting is no longer necessary. Nobody wants to read through detailed notes detailing each point discussed at the meeting. Send out practical insights so that everyone can act on them.
A brief follow-up email summarizing who is working on what and when will be completed is far more successful than meeting minutes.
10. Review Your Meeting
Finally, after the meeting is over, take some time to evaluate it.
Ask the participants which parts or periods they enjoyed most and disliked. What made them feel useful? Was there anything that could have been left out or added to improve the meeting’s quality? Please encourage them to offer constructive criticism so you may enhance the quality of future meetings.
These ten suggestions will keep typical online meeting problems at bay and ensure that everyone is engaged and contributing. Please share your thoughts on these concepts with me.
