What You Need To Know To Have An Effective Virtual Meeting

Meetings are a frequent activity in all organizations. These allow teams to coordinate their work, follow up on projects, create products and solutions, and make important decisions, among many other functions. However, even when its execution is relevant to the development of the work, the evidence would point to the fact that workers, bosses and managers consider these instances unproductive and unsatisfactory.

How to use meeting time effectively? With the spread of Covid-19 and the declaration of quarantine, many work teams saw for the first time the need to carry out their functions remotely. Coordinating large teams can be especially challenging.

What recommendations for remote meetings are feasible to implement in teams today? There is good news, see what we have on Klaxoon! It is not necessary to invent the wheel. There is research and experience that provides reliable scientific evidence to improve the effectiveness of our meetings!

Since the 1990s, several researchers have been studying the dynamics and performance of remote teams, which are the result of the globalization of markets.Next, we share with you good practices to hold effective virtual meetings with your team. Pay attention to the recommendations for before, during and at the end of your meetings.

Before you begin: Are you sure you need to have that meeting?

1. Create a motivating and useful agenda

Your time and the time of your team members are valuable. Working from home also means for many more distractions and stimuli that will compete with your involvement in the meeting. Two strategies will help you to face this situation:

Plan the least amount of time possible for your meeting: Do they really need an hour? By keeping the agenda tight, you will create incentives to achieve the meeting’s objective as efficiently as possible.

State the objectives of your meeting in the form of a question instead of statements: The planning of your meeting can be more dynamic and motivating, and will be focused on getting the question (s) answered. If you can’t come up with questions for your meeting, consider that it is probably not worth having that meeting.

2. Don’t send too many invitations

Asking questions will also allow you to define who should participate in that meeting. Who are the people whose contribution is necessary to solve these questions? Avoid sending too many invitations, and keep the number of participants as limited as possible.

3. Select the best tool for your team

The tools to hold virtual meetings allow you to record the meeting and then you can easily share its content with the rest of the interested people.

4. Prepare the virtual room

The possibility of offering a pleasant meeting space, as well as coffee and some food to the participants positively impacts their willingness to have a productive and satisfying meeting. This is still true for virtual meetings.

Make sure that all the people who are going to participate in the meeting have the necessary tools and know how to use them. Don’t assume they already know. Consider training and support in the incorporation of tools for remote work.