It is now time for virtual meetings. Due to the sudden and unprecedented arrival of the coronavirus and people being asked to avoid contact with each other, virtual meetings have become the place everyone goes to for business meetings, for university and school. It is a steep learning curve for the uninitiated to learn how to manage a virtual meeting. One that results in a lot of trial and error. Here’s how you can run effective virtual meetings when the need arises.
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1. Choose the Right Technology
The first order of business when it comes to having an effective business meeting is to set up with the right technology. This is a process of learning as you won’t know what works for you until you have tried it in practice. You could use Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom. You will need to try out all three in advance to make sure that everyone can use the program and that you can hear and see each other.
2. Work on Specific Skills
A major requirement for virtual meetings is something that you would have used often in real-life meetings too. These are ice-breakers and a facilitator for the meeting who gets things going and ushers the participants in the right direction. When it comes to online meetings the role of a facilitator becomes all the more important as someone must be on hand to handle the technical aspects. Familiarize yourself with the platform you are hoping to use and the medium and all the tools that come with it before the meeting begins.
3. Spend Time Preparing
A meeting in Doha that is being held on location at a resort the likes of Banana Island Resort Doha by Anantara is easier to prepare for than a virtual meeting that your clients in Doha and other parts of the world may get involved in. This means you will have to spend more time preparing for an online meeting as many aspects must be handled by you and not by the management team at the resort of your choice. The possibility of conflict both technically and in terms of the people involved will be significantly higher.
4. Set Ground Rules
Which is why you need ground rules. Regardless of the type of people attending your meetings, you will need to establish behavioural rules. Another important point is to minimize technical issues by asking everyone to log in early and proceed to test each on their audio and video quality. You can also ask that everyone mute themselves unless it is their turn to speak so you don’t get distracted by background noise. If possible, record these sessions so you have a log of what was said and who said it. This will be important for later, particularly if the conversations had are very important for decision making within the organization.
5. Communicate with Virtual Reality in Mind
If you are participating in audio-only meetings, you will have to train yourself to pick up audio cues such as the inflexion of one’s voice where you can no longer pick cues from facial expressions. It is also better to ask someone to reiterate what they said to minimize misunderstandings which are quite possible.