How To Run A Great Online Meeting

Author: Sandy Thompson, LEAD Director & CEO

Top Ten Tips From the LEAD Team

While technology has done a great job of bringing us together, it is the quality of the experience once we get there that makes the difference. I am sure you have all attended a few cringeworthy Zoom gatherings either for work or with whānau. The LEAD team would like to share our favourite tips for how to provide positive, virtual experiences that create connection and get the work done. Whether you’re using Zoom or some other online platform, the same trips and tricks apply:

1. Start with a round so that everyone crosses the threshold of speaking in the virtual setting early on. Give it a different focus each time - a rose and a thorn from the last week worked well with one group and I often call it a ‘lightning’ round so it doesn’t take up too much time.

2. Insist cameras are on during check-ins or introductions. After that appreciate that the person may need to feed the chickens or is suffering Zoom fatigue.

3. Call on people by name to speak, whether in a check-in round or to comment on something. Over-contributors rule supreme on Zoom and the quiet ones get to hide behind their virtual backgrounds.

4. Encourage feedback for presenters and speakers – either on screen cheering, virtual hand clapping, jazz hands or something . . . otherwise they can feel they are talking to a wall of robots.

5. Have multiple forms of engagement to ensure people are active participants, not just an audience passively watching a ‘show’. Use polls, Q+A in chat, invite comments in chat, put ideas together on a ‘white board’ (you can have separate white boards for different tasks), use thumbs up (or down) to signal choices, and of course break out rooms . If your group hasn’t used one of these methods before, have a practice go (where you can coach individuals through).

6. If you don’t have a co-host, log in to your own meeting using a second screen (I use a laptop with sound turned off) so you can see participants’ view. It’s different from host/presenter view (especially when sharing your screen, showing overheads etc).

7. When putting people into breakout rooms check first whether anyone has a question about the topic or question given.

8. If people ask questions, invite others to respond to facilitate conversation between participants. This can create a great sense of community.

9. Send questions beforehand so people have had a chance to think about the topic and if they provide the presenter with replies beforehand, all the better, to align the direction of the presentation, and discussions.

10. Ask everyone to unmute for a short period of time when you want to get discussion going so it makes it easier for people to contribute.

And a bonus three more . . . 

1. Slow down responses so that people don't talk across each other (or use a signal which shows you want to speak - eg virtual or real hands-up).

2. Make the Zoom more personal by having a bunch of flowers or some symbol/item relevant to the purpose of the meeting visible on your video screen.

3. Allow ‘reflective pauses’ for everyone to just be, absorb the conversation, or think about their response - it's okay not to fill the space all the time.