Bringing life to virtual meetings
- Nathan
- Jan 13
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 1
Virtual meetings are here to stay. If you regularly chair them, it’s up to you to make them engaging and productive.
At some point you’ve probably encountered a sea of silent, stony faces – or simply names – staring back at you across the ether. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can make virtual meetings engaging and interactive by instituting a few simple changes.
Before you begin...
The first step is to take the time – right up front – to identify and demonstrate for those attending the meeting the many ways they can participate and engage. The more ways you allow for people to provide input, the better.
Start by identifying the various reaction icons (e.g., thumbs up, raised hand, applause) and explain how and when they can be used. Then invite participants to quickly show that they can use these icons.
Get people communicating!
If time allows and if appropriate, get people to use their voices and briefly introduce themselves.
Explain the use of the message area and ask participants to send their first one. You could say something like, “How was your weekend? Send me a quick message.”
Engage, engage, engage!
As the chair, you should try to get everyone using all of these approaches as soon as possible and frequently to embed the right norms and behaviours right from the start. In other words, it’s not enough to describe and demonstrate how everyone can communicate and participate. It’s much better to ask questions and get participants responding using all the tools.
Create a positive and supportive environment.
It’s also a really good idea to remind people they can use the same tools to acknowledge and show support for other people’s contributions by giving a virtual thumbs-up or applause, or by sending a message (e.g., @Frank, great point).
Two final tips.
Watch out for defaulting to your personal preference for communicating. You may like using your voice, but that may not be the preference for participants.
It’s critical that you give people sufficient time to think before asking for a response.
“Everyone take a minute to think about…”
We all process information at different speeds; when you give people time to formulate their thoughts and make sure they are comfortable with a variety of on-line communication methods, you significantly increase the likelihood of participation and engagement. You also reduce the chances you’ll lose out on valuable input, or that one or more of your participants will check out mentally.
If your training or coaching needs are not being met, feel free to connect with us. Reach out at any time to nathan@spectrumsolutions.com.
