We all have experienced meetings that are a good solution for insomnia: lengthy presentations of one person maybe not talking about the most interesting topics. This is complex during physical presence, becomes a nightmare when you lend in a fully virtual or hybrid context.
There are a few things it makes sense to do before hosting a virtual meeting or training course to ensure its success, although you need to carefully evaluate each audience needs.
Some of the things that are useful to do before the meeting are more related to good sense and method rather than hosting capabilities:
- Who you are dealing with? Get to know the participants – what their needs are, what business are in, where they are. The more you get to know your group, the more you will be able to meet their needs. This is an essential part of building mutual trust but also will give you an idea of who you will have in your meeting. Linkedin and internal knowledge are a good staring point. Try to work on similitudes and find a common ground.
- Don’t go unstructured. Start by creating an agenda for example: if you went through the list of the attendees and identified the possible needs, challenge yourself to make an appealing time for them! Consider what input the meeting attendees want / need and how you can make it easier to achieve the expected results. Is all about method and preparation.
- Define time and communicate it. Be clear about how long it will take. Time estimation comes from experience, and in a virtual meeting, ineffective time management can quickly derail meetings. Add time to your schedule and let group members know how much time there is for each section so they can properly prepare their contribution and even know when a break is expected. A meeting is a point of synthesis and of common work, not an unlimited time together to talk about random topics.
- Good discussions are complete discussions. How many time we discover that there’s someone missing in the meeting? Think about who needs to be at the table: there is nothing worse in a meeting than not having the right people at the table or not having the necessary materials. Denotes lack of preparation and of interest.
- Come prepared and allow others to do the same. Make sure you have all the necessary materials: what will you need during the meeting? These should be sent to others prior to the meeting. Send then links and materials early enough – usually a few days in advance is enough to ensure everyone is prepared.
