Business Solutions for Spring 2021

6 SPRING 2021 A little extra planning can make things a lot more enjoyable If you’re responsible for organizing virtual meetings for your business or community organization, try these tips: 1. Make sure you actually need to hold a virtual meeting. If you’re making an announcement or sharing information that only requires attendees to listen, consider sending out an email instead. When a virtual meeting is deemed necessary, structure it with an agenda and clear objective. 2. Adopt a mandatory video-on policy. There are several reasons for this. Communication is more effective when non- verbal clues are involved, and seeing facial expressions will help to humanize virtual meetings and build comradery. In addition, when attendees appear live on screen, there’s less temptation to do other, unrelated tasks during the meeting. 3. Start with an icebreaker question. Remote work can feel lonely and isolating. Devote a few minutes at the beginning of a virtual meeting for everyone to answer a fun icebreaker question. This sets the stage for creativity and participation and helps attend- ees get to know each other better. Examples of questions include: • What career did you want when you were a child? • Would you rather have a pet seagull or a pet bat? • What was the last movie you saw? 4. Encourage all attendees to participate. Sometimes extroverts can dominate a virtual meeting. To engage the more introverted attendees, make a point to directly ask them questions about their tasks or workloads. It’s also a good idea to actively solicit ideas and get people to col- laborate. Conduct brainstorming on free virtual whiteboard apps or sticky note tools like Miro and IdeaBoardz. Implement collective note-taking on Google Docs or Confluence so that everyone gets involved (and invested) in meeting outcomes. 5. Keep virtual meetings short and sweet. Strive for between 30 and 60 minutes so everyone stays focused and productive. If you can’t manage all the agenda items within that time frame, then per- haps one meeting could be divided into two or three. 6. Agree on the next steps before the meeting ends. Be sure to write down all action points, decide on deadlines, and distribute work tasks to attendees. Also decide if and when a follow-up meeting should be scheduled. 6 Tips for Making Virtual Meetings More Interactive Virtual meetings have become the new normal, and while convenient, they have their challenges. Without in-person interaction, it’s harder to create a communal atmosphere and easier for people to get bored, disengaged, or distracted.