A long lock down and remote working period due to the pandemic has settled virtual meetings as the new normal, and after a year of this setting, we all have already mastered a variety of virtual platforms. Teams and Zoom, along with Webex and GotoMeeting among others are no secrets to us, and we feel kind of empowered changing our virtual backgrounds or telling others the top warning of 2020: “You are muted.” But we must confess virtual meetings can get boring. When you are the leader or speaker in a meeting, you have a special responsibility, and it is up to you to maintain the level of attention high. If that was difficult in the real world, in the virtual one, it is beyond challenging and tricky because there are no fixed recipes.
I want to share my own five steps toolkit to liven up meetings, grasping the attention of the participants, after having delivered 14 distinguished lectures, 47 webinars, and more than 156 virtual meetings that I have led during the past five quarters (Jan 2020 to March 2021) for my professional and voluntary work for SPE, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, GeoLatinas, and other organizations. These tips may or may not be your first course of action, but I can assure you that these have worked wonders for me, and I hope they will work for you.
1. Prepare for the meeting. Goals, content, and a timeframe are a must for every virtual meeting. Having goals for the meeting helps minimize idle time, focuses the participation of all, and provides a chance for people to come prepared, perhaps with materials to share or specific questions. Speakers that are prepared with a rich content are a delight to hear but chatting without grounds is never interesting. Respecting the time set for the meeting is crucial. Time is overly precious, and as we move from meeting to meeting in the virtual realm, we want to feel we are receiving and adding value.
2. Engage with the participants. Making sure people are interested, engaged, or at a minimum “awake” during meetings is not always trivial, as every elementary teacher that forcedly went virtual knows. It is then up to you to maintain the enthusiasm and a fair level of attentiveness during your meetings. I ask people to read some of my slides. I introduce slides with striking images for analogies of what I am referring to, and even if this adds hours to my preparation work, it is worthwhile. I also ask questions to specific people, and after two or three unprepared answers, I assure you the readiness level climbs up. Finally, the occasional joke never fails to engage people, and if you know your audience, use the particulars you know, to highlight relatable experiences, promoting participation.
3. Listen, and let others to be listened. Let us face it: Going to a meeting to listen to someone talk ceaselessly is boring. Open spaces to listen to others, even in the middle of your presentation. And at the end, establish rules for question and answers. There was a recent meeting where I was a little shocked to see the use of an electronic timer, a bell for a question-and-answer session. It was during an academic-framed meeting in Kuwait. They used the bell to limit the questioners' and panelists' time. Even if the most important person were speaking, they were cut short to make the answers fit in the given time. Awkward, but efficient. Do not shy away from cutting short people who steal time from others to participate, and make sure you listen to all, and open opportunities for listening to all.
4. Breaks: Do not diminish the importance of breaks. Some of the most pleasant virtual meetings I have attended were those that included frequent breaks. So, I have included breaks in my meetings, especially if those will be long meetings, of 2 or more hours, like board meetings. You may ask for lunch and coffee breaks of 20–30 minutes, but also do not shy away from calling for “drinking water” and “stretching” very short breaks, of 5 minutes. These are welcomed, and can energize participation, in my experience. Prepare your own access to water during the meeting, and lead by example to take care of your own health, drinking plenty of it.
5. Take group photos. Because I like it, I used to think everyone likes to be in a photo. But this is not true. With years working online for volunteering first, and now for formal work, I realized that not everyone likes to be in a photo. But participating in a virtual group photo is many times the only way to really be “part of the story” of a project, or a breakthrough decision. Take group photos and share them later by email or on social media. People appreciate the chance to be part of the story.
Including a surprise element always livens things up in a gathering. So here's another step from my toolkit.
6. Include surprise elements. I cannot stress enough the wonder that surprises can bring to a virtual meeting. I have used YouTube music clips, my own videos playing piano, and I take people with me in “navigating” websites pertinent to the topic we were addressing. I have shared photos of myself as a child, or very antique-vintage images of the companies I talk to, or of the oil fields of the countries I was addressing. I show an unusual thing I have on my desk, like a magazine with the current headline that perhaps worry all of us in oil and gas, or an unusual museum or historical finding. These elements capture the attention and we humans are intrinsically curious. Ideas are infinite to create surprise elements or even “wow” elements in your meetings. Be creative.
I hope my toolkit works for you as it has worked for me.
Recommended Reading
Jena L. 2020.A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue.Psychology Today. 17 November. Accessed 5 March 2021.
Wolf C.R. 2020. Virtual platforms are helpful tools but can add to our stress. Psychology Today. 14 May. 2020. Accessed 5 March 2021.
[The article was sourced from the author by TWA editor Abhijeet Anand.]