CHAPTER 24
How to Run a Great Virtual Meeting
by Keith Ferrazzi
Virtual meetings have the potential to be more valuable than traditional face-to-face meetings. Beyond the fact that they’re an inexpensive way to get people together— no travel costs and readily available technology—they’re also a great opportunity to build engagement, trust, and candor among teams.
Virtual meetings are just as effective as in-person gatherings if key rules and processes are maintained and respected. Here’s my comprehensive list of simple steps you can take to get the most out of your next one.
Before the Meeting
Turn the video on.
Since everyone on the call is separated by distance, using video is the best thing you can do to make everyone feel like they’re in the same room. Choose from several options, including WebEx and Skype. Video makes people feel more engaged because it lets team members see each other’s emotions and reactions, which immediately humanizes things. No longer are they just voices on a phone line; they’re the faces of your coworkers responding to what you and others are saying. Without video, you’ll never know if the dead silence in a virtual meeting is happening because somebody isn’t paying attention, someone’s rolling their eyes in exasperation, or an individual is nodding their head in agreement. Facial expressions matter.
Cut out status updates.
Too many meetings, virtual and otherwise, are reminiscent of a bunch of fifth graders reading to each other around the table: a waste of the valuable time and opportunity of having people together. The solution is to send out a simple half-page document in advance of the meeting to report on key agenda items—and then only spend time on it in the meeting if people need to ask questions or want to comment.
This type of prework prepares participants to take full advantage of the meeting by thinking ahead about the content, formulating ideas, or getting to know others in the group. This can help keep team members engaged, says business consultant Nancy M. Settle-Murphy in her book Leading Effective Virtual Teams. But one thing is critical: It has to be assumed that everyone has read the pre-reading. Not doing so becomes an ethical violation against the team. I use the word “ethical” because it’s stealing time from the team—and that’s a disrespectful habit. The leader needs to aggressively set the tone that the pre-reading should be done in advance of the meeting.
Come prepared with the team’s opinions.
Not only do you need to do your pre-reading, but after seeing the agenda, you should also discuss what’s going to be covered with your team—that is, do your own due diligence. Often people get on a virtual call with a point of view, but because they haven’t done any real homework beforehand, they end up reversing their opinions once the call has ended and they’ve learned new information that they could have easily obtained in advance. If there’s a topic that seems to have interdependencies with people who work in another location, get their input ahead of time so you’re best representing those constituents in the meeting.
During the Meeting
Encourage collaborative problem solving.
Replace the standard detailed status updates that can weigh meetings down with a group problem-solving session. How do they work? Raise a topic for discussion, and the team works together—viewing their fellow team members as sources of advice—to unearth information and viewpoints and to generate fresh ideas in response to business challenges.
Give each person time on the agenda.
Along with collaborative problem solving, giving each person time on the agenda fosters greater collaboration and helps all team members weigh in. Here’s how it works: In advance of the session, have team members write up an issue they’ve been struggling with and bring it to the group, one at a time. Each team member then gets five minutes on the agenda to discuss their issue. The group then goes around the table so everyone gets a chance to either ask a question about it or pass. After the team member answers everyone’s questions, people then get an opportunity to offer advice in the “I might suggest” format, or pass. Then you move on to the next issue until everyone has had the opportunity to present their challenge and receive ideas for addressing it.
Kill mute.
In an in-person meeting, there are social norms: You don’t get up and walk around the room, not paying attention. Nor do you make a phone call and “check out” from the meeting. Virtual meetings should be no different. You can’t press mute and leave the room to get something or strike up a conversation with your spouse. So establish a standard: Just because you’re in a virtual meeting and it’s possible to be disrespectful without others knowing, such behavior is unacceptable. If you wouldn’t do something in person, don’t do it virtually. Turning the volume on for everyone’s phones will keep people in line and raises the potential for lively discussion, shared laughter, and creativity.
Ban multitasking.
Once thought of as a way to get many things done at once, multitasking is now understood to be a way to do many things poorly. Science shows us that despite the brain’s remarkable complexity and power, there’s a bottleneck in information processing when it tries to perform two distinct tasks at once. Not only is this bad for your brain, it’s bad for your team. Set a firm policy that multitasking during your meeting is unacceptable, as it’s important for everyone to be mentally present.
Here are three ways to make sure the ban on multitasking is followed:
- Use video. It essentially eliminates multitasking, because your colleagues can see you.
- Call on specific people. Ask someone, by name, to share their thoughts. Since no one likes to be caught off-guard, they’ll be more apt to pay attention.
- Give people different tasks in the meeting. To keep people engaged, have a different team member keep the minutes of the meeting each time; track action items, owners and deadlines; and try coming up with a fun question to ask everyone at the conclusion of the meeting. If you meet regularly, rotate assignments to keep things fresh.
Check in.
Nick Morgan, president of consulting company Public Words, recommends having constant touch points. “In a virtual meeting, you need to stop regularly to take everyone’s temperature. And I do mean everyone. Go right around the list, asking each locale or person for input.”
Assign a Yoda.
Candor is difficult even for co-located teams, but it’s the number one gauge of team productivity. To keep people engaged during virtual meetings, appoint a “Yoda.” Like the wise Jedi master in Star Wars, the Yoda keeps team members in line and makes sure everyone stays active and on topic. By being courageous and calling out any inappropriate behaviors, the Yoda keeps honesty from boiling over into disrespect. At critical points during the meeting, the leader should turn to the Yoda and ask, “So, what’s going on here that nobody’s talking about?” This allows the Yoda to express what they see happening and encourage risk-taking.
After the Meeting
Formalize the watercooler.
Have you ever been in a meeting, and after it’s over everybody walks out and vents their frustrations next to the water cooler? Make the water cooler conversation the formal ending of your next virtual meeting. Roughly 10 minutes before the meeting ends, do what everybody would have done after the physical meeting—but do it in the meeting and make sure it’s transparent and conscious, reflecting people’s real feelings.
How? Have everyone go around and say what they would’ve done differently in the meeting. This is the final Yoda moment—the chance to “speak now or forever hold your peace.” This is the time when you say what you disagreed with, what you’re challenged with, what you’re concerned about, what you didn’t like, and so on. Make it clear that all the watercooler–type conversations need to happen right now or never happen again. And if they do happen later, you’re violating the ethics of the team.
Most important, civility and respect must be the norm in virtual meetings. There must be inalienable ethical rules that you follow before, during, and after a virtual meeting if it is to be truly successful. And that means adhering to two fundamental principles: Be respectful of others’ time, and be present.
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Keith Ferrazzi is the CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a research-based consulting and training company, and the author of Who’s Got Your Back (Broadway Books, 2009).
Adapted from content posted on hbr.org on March 27, 2015.