Toward More Engaging Virtual Meetings: I

Although most facilitators of virtual meetings regard attendee engagement as a desirable goal, some of their techniques for achieving it carry unfortunate risks. For example, some try to surprise attendees by calling on people unexpectedly to ask for comment. Such methods might be effective in the short run, but they can create an atmosphere of tension, because they single out individuals. In the case of surprise questions to specific attendees, the hidden (possibly unintended) message from the facilitator is that the individual designated for comment hasn't been contributing much. In effect, the facilitator risks shaming the designated individual. The facilitator's true intent is irrelevant. Attendees are free to interpret the facilitator's actions in any way they choose.

Engagement Engagement enhancement techniques that
single out individuals suspected of being
disengaged put at risk the quality of the
relationship between facilitator and attendeeenhancement techniques that single out individuals suspected of being disengaged thus put at risk the quality of the relationship between facilitator and attendee. Safer methods for enhancing engagement share two common attributes: they treat everyone alike, and they bear no resemblance to punishment. Here's Part I of a set of simple techniques to help facilitators enhance attendee engagement.

Recruit assistance

Conducting virtual meetings of more than three or four is too much work for a single facilitator. Roles that lighten the load include scribe, parking lot valet, site facilitators, action item scribe, attendance scribe, timekeeper, Designated Digression Detector, technology facilitators, and agenda manager.

Recruiting assistance also enhances attendee engagement, because people who accept these roles must remain engaged and attentive to fulfill their responsibilities.

Restrict the agenda to items that need discussion

Distribute announcements or reports (or report summaries) in advance by posting or email. We sometimes do include such items on agendas because we want everyone to hear them. But if meetings are the only reliable channels for distributing information, then there are performance issues too complex to be resolved in meetings.

Agenda items that don't require discussions or decisions can usually be removed from the agenda. Don't spend meeting time reciting what people can read in email messages, reports, or report summaries. That kind of activity causes people to disengage.

Maintain a parking lot visible to all

The parking lot is a list of topics that arise during the meeting, but which aren't immediately relevant to the agenda. We capture them for two reasons. First, we want to remember them and deal with them later. Second, we don't want them to arise again in the current meeting.

In face-to-face meetings, we maintain parking lots on flip charts or whiteboards that all can see. They remind everyone that the listed items aren't suitable for the current meeting. But in virtual meetings, we tend to forgo visibility, which means that some items arise repeatedly. Don't let this happen. Devise some way to make the parking lot visible to all.

We'll continue next time with more techniques for enhancing attendee engagement at virtual meetings.  Next in this series  Top    Next Issue

Are your virtual meetings plagued by inattentiveness, interruptions, absenteeism, and a seemingly endless need to repeat what somebody just said? Do you have trouble finding a time when everyone can meet? Do people seem disengaged and apathetic? Or do you have violent clashes and a plague of virtual bullying? Read Leading Virtual Meetings for Real Results to learn how to make virtual meetings much more productive and less stressful — and a lot shorter. Order Now!

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Related articles

More articles on Virtual and Global Teams:

Virtual Communications: II

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Remote Facilitation in Synchronous Contexts: I

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Communication Traps for Virtual Teams: I

Virtual teams encounter difficulties that rarely confront face-to-face teams. What special challenges do they face, and what can we do about them?

Costs of the Catch-Me-Up Anti-Pattern: II

When we interrupt a meeting to recap the action so far for a late-arriving attendee, the cost of the recap itself is just the beginning. There are some less-obvious costs that can be even greater.

Virtual Blowhards

Controlling meeting blowhards is difficult enough in face-to-face meetings, but virtual meetings present next-level problems, because techniques that work face-to-face are unavailable. Here are eight tactics for dealing with virtual blowhards.

See also Virtual and Global Teams and Effective Meetings for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming January 23: Judging Others

Being "judgmental" is a stance most people recognize as transgressing beyond widely accepted social norms. But what's the harm in judging others? And why do so many people do it so often? Available here and by RSS on January 23.

And on January 30: Conway's Law and Technical Debt

Conway's Law is an observation that the structures of systems we design tend to replicate our communication patterns. This tendency might also contribute to their tendency to accumulate what we now call technical debt. Available here and by RSS on January 30.

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The Power Affect: How We Express Our Personal Power

Many people who possess real organizational power have a characteristic demeanor. It's the way they project their presence. I call this the power affect. Some people — call them power pretenders — adopt the power affect well before they attain significant organizational power. Unfortunately for their colleagues, and for their organizations, power pretenders can attain organizational power out of proportion to their merit or abilities. Understanding the power affect is therefore important for anyone who aims to attain power, or anyone who works with power pretenders. Read more about this program. Here's a date for this program:

• A recording of a program presented 6:00 PM June 29 (Eastern Time), Monthly Webinar, Technobility Webinar Series. You can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.