Whether it’s in real life or cyber most people are not very fond of work meetings. Now that we’re faced with working from home and staying indoors, we’re having to focus on finding some new ways to make everyday life exciting. With all these new apps popping up every two seconds, it’s impossible to keep up with which one is best for each different occasion. Although we can’t promise each meeting will be fun and we definitely can’t prepare for them for you, we can make it a bit clearer on what you may need when looking to talk to colleagues online. So we decided to put together a little guide to help get you prepared for every online meeting scenario, including avoiding embarrassing tech moments!
- Make sure there is a clear agenda, preferably in advance
It’s key to make sure that every meeting has an agenda, especially as cyber meetings can get quite distracting sometimes. When drawing up this, let us not only determine what is discussed but also for what purpose for each point. Should the meeting gather ideas about this, gauge opinions or make firm decisions? It can help to prepare a list of items to tick off to ensure that you’re keeping efficient! - Encourage outside of the box thinking
There are two different types of people in meetings; those who lead the conversation and those who stay silent. Try to encourage those who haven’t said much to speak up, even if it’s asking their opinion on a specific topic. They might just need that extra encouragement to voice some great ideas that may help the whole team. - Invite conflicting opinions
Sometimes the online barrier can cause us to interpret things differently than we would do in real life, plus all the current uncertainty can make people slightly more agitated than usual. If there’s a disagreement within the meeting encourage the difference in opinions and explore further. Ask questions about where they are currently at and look for ways to achieve the best of both worlds. - Cluster multiple meetings in one day
Do you have more meetings in one day? See if it is possible to cluster them. It has been proven that people become more tired and experience more work pressure when their working day is cut into pieces by separate meetings, see if you can combine two meetings into one rather than having two separate meetings. - Occasionally stand up
Several studies have shown that standing meetings can reduce stress, and can also help reduce meeting time! The great advantage of online meetings is that you can be included in the meeting however you like!