Traditional boardroom meetings’ heyday has come and gone, leaving a trail of ineffective and directionless leadership behind. But when applied to current meetings that feature more modern technology capabilities for broader inclusion (like phone and video conferencing), yesterday’s lessons can help improve today’s business for greater success. With the advent of online meetings, new issues arise on top of traditional meetings’ associated challenges. But there’s hope for the business world among team leaders who approach their meetings with thoughtfulness and strategy. Here are some suggestions for tackling these frustrations head on.
- Provide a clear agenda
- Keep time in mind
- Ease the burden of note-taking.
- Provide visuals to follow along
- Send a post-meeting recap.
- Define clear action items or outcomes.
Manage Your Online Meetings With Ease
Taking meetings online presents many new possibilities, such as involving people off-site, recording the discussions for future reference, and many more opportunities that the traditional meeting lacks. Yet, despite the many benefits of online meetings, they also present an additional set of challenges, but a little planning will go a long way toward ensuring a productive end result.
PREPARATION. Don’t let setup issues cut into your meeting time. In order to avoid technical delays, make sure everyone involved has the right technology, invites, and call-in info. Check your tech and hardware:
Don’t wait to the last minute; verify all your URL links, dial-in lines, microphones, and video work before sitting down to meet.
EFFICIENCY. Efficiency is especially important when managing online meetings with off-site attendees, but you can improve efficiency with proper meeting management. The size of the meeting can dictate the overall atmosphere and the flow from topic to topic. Have a strategy in place that lays out how people will interact, who speaks when, and how the meeting will be organized. While smaller meetings may benefit from free-for-all collaboration, larger meetings may need management oversight to keep the conversations on track. Avoid Distractions: To limit distractions and keep your meeting on track, ensure all remote participants’ lines remain on mute when not talking.
PRIVACY. Collaboration is an essential part of any meeting, whether in person or online. Your meeting solution should enable you to easily share content with meeting participants. Don’t Forget About Security: Make sure your solution provides security and privacy features to better protect sensitive information.
REFERENCE. Reduce the uncertainty that can plague meeting participants by keeping records of the meeting. An online meeting solution should be able to record your session so that you and meeting participants can reference it at a later time. Make sure to announce it to the participants at the start of the meeting so that there are no surprises. Share the recording: Send out the recording link to meeting participants along with the meeting notes, so that they can refer back to it later There’s a better way to conduct your meetings, and it’s directly tied to your business’ success.
What if you could eliminate your meeting-related frustrations and run them efficiently like a pro? It’s not a far-fetched businessperson’s dream. Check out Microsoft teams at: https://motiva.net/microsoft-office-365/