CHAPTER 21

When Meetings Go Virtual

New technology offers a low-cost alternative to face-to-face meetings. From check-ins with clients to regular staff meetings among different units of a company, “virtual” meetings help avoid the costs and wasted time of business travel. Of course, face-to-face meetings will never disappear: You will rarely make a real connection to colleagues or customers through electronic devices, no matter how sophisticated. While you may simulate walking into the meeting room and sitting down at the conference table in the virtual meetings offered by GoToMeeting.com, for example, your avatar won’t replicate your body language, the tone of your voice, or even the concern on your face.

In short, virtual meetings can replace face-to-face meetings if the conversation is primarily informational in nature. However, like teleconferencing, they don’t work well for handling contentious or sensitive issues or for conducting negotiations. If you expect a heated discussion, you should consider a different format. If you actually want the attendees to participate, limit the number of participants so that everyone has time to speak during the allotted time.

LEADING THE VIRTUAL MEETING

If you are leading a virtual meeting, the following steps will help ensure a productive event.

Invest in and learn to use video effectively. Jaleh Bisharat, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Elance-oDesk, notes that you will almost always benefit from being able to see your colleagues. Sharing slides or documents and hearing everyone speak may work well in a short meeting, but investing in the technology to allow videoconferencing will pay big dividends in the long run.

When scheduling, keep in mind time zone differences. While it is not always possible when uniting participants from different continents, try to avoid local lunch hours and extremely early or late meeting times.

Send materials out early. Ensure that participants receive the agenda and any meeting materials in plenty of time to prepare for the meeting.

Rehearse the technology. Give yourself ample time before the meeting to fix any technological problems that might arise. For example, rehearse using your audiovisual materials. If your office offers the resource, alert an AV person to the fact that you are having a meeting and the time the meeting will take place. Get this tech’s direct contact information and, if possible, have the person on call.

Create a private environment. On the day of the meeting, make sure that you are in a room with closed doors so that no one will interrupt you and your colleagues won’t hear a lot of extraneous noise. Put a sign on the door that a virtual meeting is in progress.

Introduce the participants. Start the meeting by introducing every participant and indicating their location and their interest in the discussion. If this is a mass meeting, you might introduce the groups involved (e.g., “From the UK, we have our London-based marketing team attending.”)

Encourage remote attendees to speak first, or have a format for eliciting their comments. As in any meeting, if you begin by dominating the conversation, the participants, particularly those who aren’t present, will tend to check out or feel uncomfortable about trying to break into the conversation. In your role as the meeting’s leader, call on some of them directly. If the meeting is small enough, create some questions that demand a response from everyone.

Leave time for Q & As. Allow participants to ask questions, although at some point you will have to end the opportunity for Q & A. Some virtual meeting programs allow a chat function that will let people submit their questions in text. Provide an e-mail address to which participants can send further questions that come to mind.

Summarize the takeaways. At the end of the meeting, summarize the conversation and reiterate any action items before ending the session. Thank everyone for participating in the discussion. Following up with an e-mail that summarizes the meeting is also a good idea. If you don’t have the time, delegate someone to follow up on the action item with the appropriate person.

AVOIDING VIRTUAL RUDENESS

Many of the same rules for face-to-face meetings, such as not interrupting or dominating the conversation, apply to virtual meetings—although virtual meetings can sometimes be more forgiving: The mute button allows you to unwrap that granola bar silently, and the fragrances of your Italian sub aren’t shared with all participants. However, the distance in virtual meetings between you and the other participants may not be as great as you believe (e.g., everyone can hear when someone opens and closes the door behind you.) Therefore, here are some important courtesy rules for participants to follow when attending virtual meetings.

Make sure that you have received and looked at all materials. During the meeting is not the time to realize that you cannot follow the discussion because you weren’t aware of the two articles to read beforehand. And the last thing you want to do is interrupt the meeting to ask the facilitator to resend the articles.

If the virtual meeting is a videoconference, dress in basic colors, but not black or white. Remember that you will be on a screen; bright colors and exuberant prints, as well as large, shiny jewelry, will be distracting.

Be on time. Don’t believe that because the meeting is virtual you will be able to surreptitiously join the meeting without causing any disruption. Depending on the system you use, bells, beeps, or automated voices may notify everyone that Joel just joined the meeting. Or a popup window may let everyone know that you’re late. In addition, the meeting facilitator will usually want to acknowledge a new presence. If possible, virtual meetings may be even more difficult to sneak into than a large live one.

Pick a quiet room. Although you are a participant, you should avoid any open-plan areas; the conversations of your colleagues will be distracting when meeting participants are trying to listen to what you have to say.

Identify yourself each time you speak. This practice is useful particularly if the group is large and if you don’t regularly meet with these people.

Organize your comments for clarity. Even with visual capabilities, you must be able to connect with others through your voice. Others will easily disengage if you ramble, can’t get to the point quickly, or fill your sentences with muttered “uhs,” “wells,” and “you knows.” Know what you are going to say, and speak clearly and slowly to overcome the inevitable dip in sound quality that comes from speaking through machines. Make sure that you maintain appropriate vocal volume throughout your sentences. Avoid letting your voice trail off as you get to the end of your statement.

Pay attention and avoid off-line chats. You’re wasting your time and the company’s money if you are not really attending the meeting you are supposed to be attending. Turn off instant updates of e-mails—they will be too difficult to ignore. And don’t believe that virtual meetings will allow you to get ready for your part of a meeting in the meeting. You should be prepared to participate fully before the meeting starts.

Catch the pauses to contribute. As with any meeting, at some point you will want to interject a comment without rudely interrupting. Wait until there’s an appropriate break in the conversation or in the presentation from the meeting facilitator and then make your point clearly and succinctly. The art in contributing to any meeting is in catching the pause, almost like a surfer catching a wave. The slight delays inherent in long-distance communication can make the process more difficult, though, and unlike when you’re engaged in a live conversation, you aren’t able to detect all of the subtle changes in people’s body language when they want to say something.

Use your mute capability generously. Noise is amplified. If you are going to cough or shuffle sheets of papers as you look for the latest sales figures, hit that button. Just remember to take it off when you’re finished or you will wonder why people are speaking over your comments.

Keep body movement minimal. On the screen, any big body movement will be distracting to other participants. Although in a live encounter, gestures help support your message, when you are onscreen, “happy hands” can be a huge distraction.

Don’t disappear. If you have to leave the meeting, let people know that you are disengaging. In smaller meetings, inform the entire group. If you know you will have to depart, let the group know beforehand that you will be leaving before the end of the meeting. In larger groups, you should advise the leader at your location that you must go.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The basic rules of meeting courtesy apply to virtual meetings, even when participants are not in the same room.

Ample preparation and rehearsal time is critical to successful facilitation of a virtual meeting.

Have a plan for keeping everyone engaged and involved.

Because of the distortions and amplifications caused by your screen presence, facilitators and participants should avoid wearing stripes and shiny jewelry, gesturing with big movements, and speaking too fast.

Distractions are even more tempting when you are not physically present among meeting participants; make the effort required to pay attention, ignore incoming e-mails, and avoid side-conversations.