Author
I happened to move to a new town just before Covid hit back in 2020. A key factor that Newville needed to provide was a train link into London. I’ve lived here for over five years now and I’ve caught the train into town for business three times! In fact, I’ve had more face-to-face time with our American clients.
Meetings have changed. We all know this, but how can we make them better?
Say hello
For internal or repeat client meetings in particular, make sure you take the time to say hi to everyone. Don’t fire up your screen share – and thereby make everyone’s picture tiny – until everyone’s on the call and you’ve had the opportunity to chat about whatever it is that comes up.
Sure, we all want to get whatever it is we’re meeting about done with the minimum of fuss, but if we met in person we’d ask each other about how the weekend went or whether the dog’s operation went smoothly, so we should in online meetings too.
Backgrounds
Unless you absolutely have to, don’t blur or add a background. A meeting on Teams or Zoom is instantly less real or human than a face-to-face meeting, so don’t make it even more alien with a background that makes you look weird every time you move.
Some organisations think it’s more professional to have a branded background on calls. And that does give employees who are worried about showing their home to strangers some privacy, but most of us have dedicated work-from-home spaces so let’s just keep it natural.
Having something interesting in the background can be a great conversation starter. I thought my gold disc – earned many decades ago – would never be beaten until I got on a call with someone who was sporting a Klingon Bat’leth on their wall!
Finally, don’t rely on backgrounds to cover up what’s behind you. The client bigwig who displayed his vast toilet roll collection mid-meeting is now part of Headscape folklore 🙂
Show thyself
I think most people find it easier to follow what someone is saying – and therefore understand it better – if they can see them saying it.
Of course, no-one should be forced into turning on video in calls, but getting a better understanding of people’s meaning through their body language should be encouraged if possible.
Show your workings
Online meetings really come into their own with their ability for participants to share what they’re looking at with the rest of the team.
Positively facilitate people to show what they’re talking about by regularly encouraging them to share their screen. Actively swap the screen share depending on who’s talking.
Keep it short and simple
When we’re able to carry out workshops in person (and we still try to do that whenever possible) we will happily dedicate a full day, or even multiple days, to various tasks and exercises. This approach works brilliantly because it allows us to easily split into groups when needed, explore ‘rabbit hole’ ideas, draw on whiteboards, and stick stickies on walls.
All of these things are possible in online meetings but they take a lot more organisation, patience, and perseverance to be successful. All of which can be very tiring.
Keep online meetings to a maximum of two hours otherwise people will burn out and you won’t be able to trust your findings.
On longer meetings, particularly those of a brainstorming nature, encourage participants to take a break.
Summary
I feel I’m stating the obvious, but in-person meetings have a human element to them that’s been lost in online meetings. All of the things covered here are ways in which we can promote those approachable and accessible characteristics that not only can make meetings more successful, but maybe even more enjoyable.