During the home office, virtual meetings have become the most efficient way to discuss important issues, make strategic decisions and keep professional teams aligned. However, because they occur in domestic environments, where there are countless distractions, the performance of these interactions can end up being harmed.
One productive online meeting is one that meets the pre-established agenda, involves the right people, discusses issues with business intelligence, allows argumentative exchange to direct decision-making, develop transformative strategies, optimize timeshare, and so on against.
If you want to know more about the benefits of remote work, we recommend reading this material here.
Now, to understand more about this practice of Communication virtual, keep following this post. Learn how to make your online meeting productive and ensure that your workforce is walking by your side. Good reading!
What is a meeting online?
Online meeting, also known as webmeeting, is nothing more than the live transmission of information, through the support of a digital platform.
This interaction format can be used for corporate meetings, training teams, product demonstrations, congresses, lectures, seminars, auctions, events, press conference, among others.
The goal is to bring together people from different locations, anywhere in the world, to exchange information and positions on specific subjects. In the case of remote workers, these meetings still serve to include you and identify you as a member of the organization.
In addition to shortening distances, meetings online still save time, allowing organizational development not to be hampered by logistical blockages.
What are the challenges of a meeting online?
While the many digital resources available on the market facilitate remote communication between people, allowing for 24/7 interactions from anywhere in the world, meetings online can be extremely monotonous and unproductive.
With that, the main objective of the interaction is lost. The lack of interest, focus, commitment, attention, among others, can be decisive for organizational decision making. So, hold a meeting online it can be a challenge.
To hold the attention of the collaborator, stimulate him intellectually, instigate him to interact and expose his positions, it is essential that meetings have a clear roadmap, start and end times, defined issues, dynamic interactions and the right people. So, to have a productive online meeting, you need to know how to conduct it.
How to have a productive online meeting?
With the various technological advances, changes in routines personal and professional people from all over the planet were implanted. The novelties presented reinforced the need for agile and effective solutions to drive the modern scenario. THE webmeeting is an example of this.
Increasingly used by employees of companies in the most varied areas of activity, The webmeeting it is the milestone of a new era of corporate communication. Today, there are already several platforms that provide this interaction, aiming to enhance the productivity of teams professionals and optimize working time.
Some examples for conducting a productive online meeting are:
- Hangouts;
- Zoom;
- Appear.in;
- Google Meet;
- Skype;
- Meetime;
- Facebook Messenger;
- Whatsapp;
- Facetime.
Each tool has its advantages and disadvantages, so it is essential that managers carry out careful research to know and employ those that meet the real needs and demands of the organization.
In other words, there is no point in paying for popular online or referral tools by friends if they are not in line with the reality of your business. The productivity of these interactions is also directly linked to the choice of the base tool.
What are the main tips for making an online meeting productive?
Now that you understand what online meetings are and how to implement them, check out some tips to improve your productivity.
Check equipment and internet connection in advance
The first step in making a meeting online productive is check in advance the electronic equipment that will be used and your internet connections.
As basic as it may seem, this caution is worth mentioning because any failure can invalidate every meeting. In other words, one of the main purposes of this technology, which is time optimization, would be compromised by a technical problem that could have been corrected before the event.
Ideally, you make this inquiry about 60 minutes in advance, so you can take action if something goes wrong. So, check the microphone, the image quality of the camera, the internet connection (the broadband used needs to support data traffic), site lighting, device battery, and so on.
Look for a quiet and secluded environment
To ensure a meeting online productive it is important that you be in a quiet and adequate environment.
At changes in labor policies, who use the home office as an emergency measure due to Covid-19 pandemic or remote work for some more modern organizations, it brings challenges such as finding that location. Children, family, mess, among other distractions, can impair your interaction and the understanding of other participants.
This way, try to notify the people who live with you that a work meeting will be held, their collaboration will be necessary. So, in addition to improving the quality of dialogue and arguments, you still make a positive impression for the company.
Escape from distractions
Following the logic of the previous tip, to have a productive online meeting, you must escape distractions. Even if you are not in a face-to-face meeting, your focus should be the same so that the content covered is well used.
In this way, avoid using your cell phone, social networks or the computer itself to perform other tasks during the meeting. While this may seem self-evident, many people end up sinning in this regard.
Create an agenda listing what should be discussed at the meeting
After checking the equipment and defining a suitable location, it is time to create an agenda of topics to ensure a conversation, during the online meeting, productive. Taking notes on the issues and reviewing them before the meeting can also help.
When scheduling an online meeting, remember to ask participants if they have issues to add to the document. Set a deadline for sending this information and organize the agenda, seeking to give dynamism and coherence to the discussion.
Share this agenda with the other professionals who will participate in this meeting. In addition to serving as check list for the progress of the discussion, the agenda still serves to direct the focus of the conversation.
Prioritize short meetings
As we said earlier, an online meeting can become monotonous, uninteresting and unproductive, so it is important to consider human behavior.
When we spend a lot of time in the same position or participate in long conversations that do not develop, our focus and attention are dispersed. Therefore, prioritize holding short meetings.
To ensure a productive online meeting, the audiences involved need to be attentive to follow the topics covered.
Dress appropriately
Another important tip for making an online meeting productive is the question of clothing. To avoid any type of faux pas or inadequacy, carefully evaluate the clothes you intend to wear on the day of the meeting.
Even if you are at home, taking care of your image is essential. Also, pay attention to your posture and behavior during the meeting. Remember that even in a home office, this meeting is official.
Start the meeting by ensuring that everyone can see and hear
Following the same logic as the first tip, it is essential to make an online meeting productive that the technical equipment is working properly, and this is not exclusive to you. All participants must be properly equipped.
Before the meeting, send a message to the participants asking them to also check the status of the equipment itself an hour in advance. Before actually starting the conversation, make sure everyone is listening to you and seeing you well.
Respect each other's speech
Another important tip is to respect the other's speech. In a conversation that involves many people, even more remotely, it is natural that some lines overlap.
However, this anxiety to present a counter-argument can compromise the understanding of a point of view or an entire reasoning. That's why, it is essential that the participants respect the finalization of a score so that they can position themselves.
One way to reinforce this control is through a mediator. A participant positions himself to conduct the conversation and the speech orders, in a calm, respectful and beneficial manner.
Have a meeting minutes
Finally, our last tip for ensuring a productive online meeting is to have minutes. Every meeting, whether online or face-to-face, needs to be documented to ensure decisions taken jointly. And that's what the minutes are for.
This document must contain not only the results, but also the entire agenda discussed, in an organized, concentrated and responsible manner.
Once the registration is complete, the person in charge must send these minutes to everyone who participated in the meeting, as a way of reminding them of the agreements signed.
Therefore, in order to have a productive online meeting, some care needs to be taken. It is useless to hold several meetings a day if your content is not being used to develop the business or empower The workforce.
These tips can help your team to focus and get the most out of the debates. And yet, they can optimize one of the main resources of any organization: time.
Did you like the post? Tell us here in the comments how your company's online meetings are being held!
