Last week we talked about how to plan for meetings with four different objectives: top-down information sharing, top-down information sharing with Q&A time, round robin information sharing, and discussing and gathering feedback.
This week we'll talk about three other useful objectives for meetings:
- Working on a project
- Brainstorming
- Socializing or celebrating
Meeting planners, think about how you've tackled these objectives in the past and what did or didn't work. How many people can be in each type of meeting while still fulfilling the objective? Meeting participants, what have your experiences been with the following meeting types?
Working On a Project:
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In project-based meetings, the most important need is providing a collaborative working space. It is almost impossible to have a successful project-based working meeting with more than 5 people, so strongly consider another format such as a Yammer group for larger projects. Another possibility is breaking up projects into smaller parts for small groups to work on together and then return to the larger group with their work.
Recommendations for project-based working meetings:
- Provide a meeting space where all participants can interact with all the materials in the same way. Skype is the best way to provide this space.
- Make sure the participants have access to the meeting materials before and after the meeting.
Read tips on holding project-based meetings.
Brainstorming and Generating Ideas:
Meetings held to brainstorm, especially if leaders do not prepare attendees beforehand, can often result in wasted time while everyone digests the topic at hand and gathers their initial thoughts. These meetings can be more effective when attendees are asked to first brainstorm on their own and are given adequate information about the topic they are brainstorming. It is difficult to come up with ideas in a vacuum or with little background knowledge!
- Consider your staff. Some people need time to reflect on material. You don't want the off-the-cuff thinkers to dominate the conversation.
- Yammer, wikis, and shared documents that allow multiple collaborators are other ways to gather ideas from multiple people without needing to meet, and they give related, useful information a place to live.
Socialization, Team Building, and Celebrating:
As our teams become more hybrid, it becomes more important to find ways to socialize and celebrate virtually. Teams don’t have to forgo holiday parties, baby showers, and post-work happy hours just because they can’t meet in person. With some planning and preparation, these “meetings” can be successful and fun.
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It may feel funny to call a team building activity or celebration a meeting, but leaders of these gatherings should keep the following meeting considerations in mind:
- Be sure all participants can engage in the same manner. Making offsite attendees "participate" in an onsite party by watching everyone have fun and eat treats does not make for good team building.
- Remember people will probably use the chat, especially in larger gatherings.
- Communicate in the invitation whether the gathering is required or optional.
- Make sure you plan it. Provide some kind of structure so everyone isn't sitting around blankly staring at each other.
Learn about holding virtual parties and other social events.
As you plan future meetings, remember the tips from this week and last, noting that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to meeting with your colleagues. It takes time to think through your purpose and the needs of your team, but you’ll be rewarded with more productive and enjoyable meetings.
Next week we'll take a final look at meeting planning by considering a meeting's length, size, and location. Do you have thoughts on what we've shared so far? We welcome your feedback!
Anne, Lisa, Amber, and Erin
Remote Experience Working Group
What is the objective of the meeting?
There are a number of different reasons to hold a meeting. Knowing the meeting objective and considering the best way to meet that objective will help you host productive meetings.
Some meeting objectives include:
- project-based working meeting such as a working group
- discussion and feedback from a small or large group of people such as a department management meeting
- information sharing such as an all-staff meeting
- socialization and team building such as baby showers, group lunches, and milestone celebrations
Project-based working meetings
In project-based meetings, the most important need is providing a collaborative space for the participants to work. It is almost impossible to have a project-based working meeting with more than 5 people, so strongly consider another format such as a Yammer group for larger projects.
Recommendations for project-based working meetings:
- Provide a meeting space where all participants can interact with all the materials in the same way. Skype is the best way to provide this space.
- Make sure the participants have access to the meeting materials before and after the meeting.
Collaborative Meeting Spaces:
To support engagement in a meeting, attendees need to interact with material in the same way. The easiest way to do that is to make the meeting either completely virtual or completely face-to-face, depending on who is invited. However this isn't always possible. Hybrid meetings can be truly collaborative and engaging for all attendees, if you keep a few things in mind.
Support engagement through visuals:
- Make sure everyone is seeing the same thing. In a hybrid meeting, the attendees in the room should see the same thing as those online.
- When sharing content, enlarge the content so it is easily seen. This is especially important when editing documents or sharing content with a lot of detail.
- Share meeting notes and other documents within the meeting space whenever possible, as opposed to asking attendees to open the documents on their own. By sharing the document in the meeting, everyone is looking at the same content at the same time.
Maximize Skype features:
- Upload PowerPoint and other files to the Skype meeting space and allow your attendees to download the files. This way, the attendees can browse and download the files on their own, as well as viewing them together in the meeting.
- Use the whiteboard to brainstorm.
- Instead of asking everyone if they agree with something, use a poll. This way everyone can vote without talking over each other, and those who are in opposition may be more likely to say so.
Socialization, teambuilding, & celebrating
It is possible to have fun, social events in a virtual environment. With a bit of planning and organization, virtual lunches and parties can be a great way to strengthen your team and learn about each other.
Always be clear as to whether a social event is required. The last thing you want is for people to feel obligated to attend a fun event.
You can do just about everything you would at a face-to-face party in a virtual environment, it just takes more planning. Here are some ideas you can try.
- Mail cookies or other treats around to the staff and have a 30-minute virtual cookie party. People can hang out, come and go as they please, and chat about whatever comes up both verbally and in the chat box.
- Have a group lunch or book club meeting in Skype.
- Celebrate life events by holding a Skype party. If appropriate (for a baby shower, for example) staff can send presents to the honoree, or the department can send something on behalf of everyone. Always make it clear that participation in any social event and in purchasing items is always optional.
- Use the whiteboard and draw options in Skype to play games or show your artistic side.
Virtual parties are one time you may want to consider an alternative to Skype. Skype's big limitation is that it only displays 5 webcams at a time. Depending on what kind of party you are having, this may be fine. But if you want lots of webcams to show all the time, Adobe Connect or Gotomeeting may be a better option. Talk to Lisa Raymond about multi-webcam options to Skype.