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We’d all love to believe that 100% of our virtual meetings are 100% awesome, but let’s be honest. Most team members are probably checking their email while you run through your slides.
Is it just the curse of remote meetings, or maybe the problem is closer to your approach? If you’re skipping check-in questions, hogging airtime, and neglecting agendas, efficient remote meetings will always remain a distant dream.
To help you make your meetings more engaging and productive, here are seven virtual meeting best practices you can apply – today. Read on to learn how to improve virtual meetings in your company.
7 tips for virtual meetings
1. Determine if the meeting is necessary
First things first – do you actually need a meeting?
During the pandemic, a lot of companies got into the habit of jumping on a video call whenever they needed to update their staff about anything. Meetings can be helpful, but they’re not the right choice for everything. If you can get the message across via a quick chat or email, avoid the meeting.
Meetings are usually only the right choice if
- You need to make a quick decision
- The same conclusion would require 10 emails back and forth
- You need to establish some human connection
- You need to build energy
- You aren’t hearing from certain voices
If you do decide that a meeting is a good idea, make sure you’re prepared for it. Write an agenda that covers the purpose of the meeting, the questions you want to answer by the end, and the goals you hope to achieve. Ask yourself, what is this meeting for, and how will you measure whether it was successful? You can even share your agenda with your team to ensure everyone’s on the same page. Check out our virtual meeting agenda template here.
2. Choose your attendees
Just because you need a meeting, doesn’t mean your entire company has to be there.
Virtual meeting tools make it easy to connect employees from all over the world. However, everyone who attends your conversation needs a specific purpose for being there.
If someone comes into your meeting and goes out feeling like they’ve just wasted 30 minutes, you’ve got a problem.
To ensure that you’re only inviting the right people, determine who needs to be at your meeting by looking at your agenda. Who will you need to give directions to, or ask questions of? If some of the people on your list can get information with an email, instead of being in the meeting, consider leaving them out of the conversation.
Keep the meeting invite list small, but make sure the information covered is widely accessible. That way, no one feels left-out.
3. Pick the best medium
A meeting doesn’t have to just be a meeting. It can be a recorded video, a livestream, a Google doc, a live chat, or any number of other options.
Nancy Duarte gave us great virtual meeting best practices on the podcast when she said that communicators today need to think not only about the message they want to convey, but also about what the team needs. Is everyone drained out on meetings? Maybe you need to cancel and send notes instead. Are people missing out on connection? Plan out lots of 1:1 and breakout times. It’s not what you say, but the medium you use to say it.
4. Pick your tech
Technology is at the heart of the digital meeting. However, it’s important to shoot for tech minimalism and start with the tools that help keep things streamlined.
Before the meeting, you might use a scheduler app to keep everyone connected about the right time for the conversation. You can also use notes tools to share information about what the meeting might cover.
For the meeting itself, you’ll need a meeting tool that everyone feels comfortable with. Things like Microsoft Teams or Slack are often popular. If you’re not sure which software to use, try speaking to your team about their preferences.
Ideally, the meeting tools you use should connect with the other services you rely on.
For instance, if you use Microsoft Word and Excel to create documents, it makes sense to use Microsoft Teams, which integrates with the rest of the portfolio.
5. Think how you’ll form a connection
In times where solitary isolation is common, connecting as a human being – and not just in a professional capacity – can make meetings more engaging. But how can you connect with the attendees in a way that feels comfortable to them?
It might be by opening with a lighthearted joke, sharing a personal struggle you’re dealing with, or making your audience feel a connection when the agenda of the meeting.
Before you join, make sure to silence your phone, close unnecessary browser tabs, and switch off competing sounds. One of the worst ways to damage a connection is to look distracted during a conversation.
Give your full attention to the participants and watch them brim with enthusiasm to engage and contribute.
6. Remember the ground rules
Preparing for a virtual meeting takes a lot of planning, but there’s more to do when it’s actually happening.
Start by reading the room and establishing some baselines to ensure your meeting starts off right.
Follow your digital meeting ground rules about:
- Joining with video on
- Dealing with interruptions
- The use of chat
- And other remote meeting etiquette
Use your agenda of questions to reiterate the objective of the meeting. If you sense the team is deviating, reset and plan another meeting if required.
Have an open document that captures key discussions and action items. This will help set the agenda for the next meeting.
7. Follow up after the meeting
The last of the virtual meeting best practices should be in place before the call ends. Before you click the red button, everyone in the conversation should know what they need to do next.
That could mean giving everyone specific tasks that they need to complete with a set deadline, or instructions. You can even get bots that collect notes from the meeting and give your staff a summary through Microsoft Teams when they hang up.
If you’re not sending a summary via a bot, try and add a few notes to an email or group message to ensure that everyone’s taking the right information away.
For your own personal records, don’t forget to make notes of the people who are going to be responsible for certain actions going forward and how you’re going to check up on them.
Set your virtual meeting up for success
Virtual meeting best practices aren’t just about do’s and don’ts. If you are looking for tips for virtual meetings, you need to dig deeper than when to go on mute.
When run well, virtual meetings can help create an interactive space for all employees to feel able to contribute. As we grapple with the personal intrusion of video calls, implementing the above practices will help ensure your remote meetings are a great experience.
We’d all love to believe that 100% of our virtual meetings are 100% awesome, but let’s be honest. Most team members are probably checking their email while you run through your slides.
Is it just the curse of remote meetings, or maybe the problem is closer to your approach? If you’re skipping check-in questions, hogging airtime, and neglecting agendas, efficient remote meetings will always remain a distant dream.
To help you make your meetings more engaging and productive, here are seven virtual meeting best practices you can apply – today. Read on to learn how to improve virtual meetings in your company.
7 tips for virtual meetings
1. Determine if the meeting is necessary
First things first – do you actually need a meeting?
During the pandemic, a lot of companies got into the habit of jumping on a video call whenever they needed to update their staff about anything. Meetings can be helpful, but they’re not the right choice for everything. If you can get the message across via a quick chat or email, avoid the meeting.
Meetings are usually only the right choice if
- You need to make a quick decision
- The same conclusion would require 10 emails back and forth
- You need to establish some human connection
- You need to build energy
- You aren’t hearing from certain voices
If you do decide that a meeting is a good idea, make sure you’re prepared for it. Write an agenda that covers the purpose of the meeting, the questions you want to answer by the end, and the goals you hope to achieve. Ask yourself, what is this meeting for, and how will you measure whether it was successful? You can even share your agenda with your team to ensure everyone’s on the same page. Check out our virtual meeting agenda template here.
2. Choose your attendees
Just because you need a meeting, doesn’t mean your entire company has to be there.
Virtual meeting tools make it easy to connect employees from all over the world. However, everyone who attends your conversation needs a specific purpose for being there.
If someone comes into your meeting and goes out feeling like they’ve just wasted 30 minutes, you’ve got a problem.
To ensure that you’re only inviting the right people, determine who needs to be at your meeting by looking at your agenda. Who will you need to give directions to, or ask questions of? If some of the people on your list can get information with an email, instead of being in the meeting, consider leaving them out of the conversation.
Keep the meeting invite list small, but make sure the information covered is widely accessible. That way, no one feels left-out.
3. Pick the best medium
A meeting doesn’t have to just be a meeting. It can be a recorded video, a livestream, a Google doc, a live chat, or any number of other options.
Nancy Duarte gave us great virtual meeting best practices on the podcast when she said that communicators today need to think not only about the message they want to convey, but also about what the team needs. Is everyone drained out on meetings? Maybe you need to cancel and send notes instead. Are people missing out on connection? Plan out lots of 1:1 and breakout times. It’s not what you say, but the medium you use to say it.
4. Pick your tech
Technology is at the heart of the digital meeting. However, it’s important to shoot for tech minimalism and start with the tools that help keep things streamlined.
Before the meeting, you might use a scheduler app to keep everyone connected about the right time for the conversation. You can also use notes tools to share information about what the meeting might cover.
For the meeting itself, you’ll need a meeting tool that everyone feels comfortable with. Things like Microsoft Teams or Slack are often popular. If you’re not sure which software to use, try speaking to your team about their preferences.
Ideally, the meeting tools you use should connect with the other services you rely on.
For instance, if you use Microsoft Word and Excel to create documents, it makes sense to use Microsoft Teams, which integrates with the rest of the portfolio.
5. Think how you’ll form a connection
In times where solitary isolation is common, connecting as a human being – and not just in a professional capacity – can make meetings more engaging. But how can you connect with the attendees in a way that feels comfortable to them?
It might be by opening with a lighthearted joke, sharing a personal struggle you’re dealing with, or making your audience feel a connection when the agenda of the meeting.
Before you join, make sure to silence your phone, close unnecessary browser tabs, and switch off competing sounds. One of the worst ways to damage a connection is to look distracted during a conversation.
Give your full attention to the participants and watch them brim with enthusiasm to engage and contribute.
6. Remember the ground rules
Preparing for a virtual meeting takes a lot of planning, but there’s more to do when it’s actually happening.
Start by reading the room and establishing some baselines to ensure your meeting starts off right.
Follow your digital meeting ground rules about:
- Joining with video on
- Dealing with interruptions
- The use of chat
- And other remote meeting etiquette
Use your agenda of questions to reiterate the objective of the meeting. If you sense the team is deviating, reset and plan another meeting if required.
Have an open document that captures key discussions and action items. This will help set the agenda for the next meeting.
7. Follow up after the meeting
The last of the virtual meeting best practices should be in place before the call ends. Before you click the red button, everyone in the conversation should know what they need to do next.
That could mean giving everyone specific tasks that they need to complete with a set deadline, or instructions. You can even get bots that collect notes from the meeting and give your staff a summary through Microsoft Teams when they hang up.
If you’re not sending a summary via a bot, try and add a few notes to an email or group message to ensure that everyone’s taking the right information away.
For your own personal records, don’t forget to make notes of the people who are going to be responsible for certain actions going forward and how you’re going to check up on them.
Set your virtual meeting up for success
Virtual meeting best practices aren’t just about do’s and don’ts. If you are looking for tips for virtual meetings, you need to dig deeper than when to go on mute.
When run well, virtual meetings can help create an interactive space for all employees to feel able to contribute. As we grapple with the personal intrusion of video calls, implementing the above practices will help ensure your remote meetings are a great experience.
