Virtual dynamics: in this virtual reality landed without anesthesia, we all participate in meetings.

Guests, invited people, attendees, needed people, what changes for each one, meeting by meeting, is the role we have played in it.

For this reason, RUNNING requires that each organization urgently establishes its own meeting management policy, which is unique and applicable to all meetings held virtually.

This arrangement will make it easier for everyone to understand the operation, since there are not many faces to see, because we turn off videos to improve the performance of communications, there are no posters on the walls, and the meeting is built collaboratively with rules understood by all.

Several and valuable collaborations are flowing nowadays for the management of virtual dynamics, so more than developing them, we provide you a check list to have at hand and review them vs. their policies, either to enrich them or to generate them urgently.

We are going to order these tips in different moments: the preparation, the meeting and the post-meeting.

PREPARATION OF THE MEETING ORGANIZER:

DEFINE ROLES (at least think of 4 roles):

FACILITATOR: defines and carries out the agenda and objectives.  Clarifies what was done and when the objectives were met closes the objectives to release the participants.

DOCUMENTATOR: the one who takes note during the meeting.  The function is facilitated by using tools of the platform – blackboard, notes, recording, which we will develop.

MODERATOR: When the topic has complex debates the facilitator agrees with some participant to facilitate the moderation based on his or her capacity to help the participants to achieve the objective. Either because of their expertise or their ability to influence.

MODERATOR: When the topic has complex debates the facilitator agrees with some participant to facilitate the moderation based on his or her capacity to help the participants achieve the objective. Either because of their expertise or their ability to influence.

PARTICIPANTS: we all participate to make a contribution and take something to do. participants are attendees because of their role as experts in the subject to be discussed and/or as implementers of the actions to be decided.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: always make sure that one of the participants (e.g. the documentor) knows how to use the available tools.

PREPARE THE AGENDA AND OBJECTIVES:

Define in advance and communicate who is participating, why they were invited, what the objectives of the meeting are, what are the expectations, and what information they need to know in advance, so that everyone arrives as prepared as possible.

If the agenda is intense, consider that the level of exhaustion in virtual sessions is greater. Plan rest points to facilitate the active participation of the attendees.

Define maximum time blocks per time. The moderator will operate as a time manager, or will ask an assistant to do so, if he or she has a strong role as a participant.

HAVE THE CONTENTS CLOSE BY:

If the participants have to provide documents, they should preferably be kept by the facilitator to better organize the dynamics. Visual communication will be relevant for a better understanding. The visual should help to focus on the objectives and the information to be considered to solve it.

The effort to make a mental construction of dialogues with people we don’t see, when you have no less than 8 video conferences a day burns the brain of the most prepared.

A virtual meeting is not a space to let go of problems and share them, but to solve them.

PREPARATION OF THE PARTICIPANT:

UNDERSTANDING AND ORGANIZING

If you have to make previous contributions, send them to the organizer.

Have close by the resources you may need during the virtual meeting, especially to answer specific questions (data, cases, problems).

Have your ideas in a clean note at hand, to be able to share them if the dynamics requires it.

Position yourself as regards the role you play and the contributions you can make.

Identify if you see any key attendees missing in the meeting that would be convenient to invite because of the topic and inform the organizer in advance.

Make sure that you will be ready to connect 2 minutes before the beginning.

LEADING THE VIRTUAL MEETING:

PREPARATION

Have everything available to me when you log on.

Enter 2 minutes before the start. The organizer receives the guests and reminds them the good practices (turn off the videos, mute the microphones, etc.).

DYNAMICS

  • Virtual meetings are super-punctual.
  • Up to 5 minutes of reception and incorporation of attendees and then starts with the agenda of topics.
  • Whoever leads enables the discussion of agenda items. Whoever leads the time sets the pace to lead to conclusions.
  • Try to always keep the agenda or the materials under discussion on screen to allow for a return to focus if the discussions are extended or wander from the subject.
  • Keep private messaging (WhatsApp or other) on hand. It is very useful for containing participants who are not focused on the objective.
  • Keep private messaging (WhatsApp or other) on hand. It is very useful for containing participants who are not focused on the objective.
  • Use public messaging (from the collaboration tool itself) for “urbi et orbi” messages, meaning for all participants. Note that they are part of the meeting history.
  • Use that public messaging to share supplemental documents that you find valuable. They will be incorporated into the history.
  • At the end of each point it is relevant to highlight the conclusions.
  • If breaks are proposed, they are without log out and of no more than 5 minutes.
  • At the end of the meeting (due to time or achievement of points in the agenda) the agreements are synthesized -see recording utilities as assistants- and the next steps.
  • Thank for the participation and release the participants.

AFTER THE MEETING:

RIGHT AFTER

  • Stay connected to the documentarian for a few minutes to ensure that all notes are recorded in the conversation history.
  • Produce a summary of agreements and next steps to be used to organize follow-up and continuity.
  • This document should be kept in the history and will be taken as background for the appointment of the next meeting.

LATER

  • We all have a feeling of how the participants felt after the meeting.
  • Don’t stay with doubts. It is important to make sure that you understood and know what to do.
  • From this follow-up you will define the timing and agenda for the next meeting.

We are particularly grateful for the contribution of the consulting firm Point B, citizen of the global network Nextcontinent, with presence in 12 cities in the USA, its Future of Work team and its recommendations, which we have included in the construction of this checklist.

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