Meetings may not be your favorite activity, but they’re vital to the success of most businesses. Fortunately, the Internet has largely eliminated the need to get people from different places together in the same physical location. Online meetings make it possible to instantly connect with people in other parts of the country and around the world. They are an ideal solution when you have people working in different offices or when you need to touch base with remote workers.
While convenient, however, knowing how to set up a conference call to ensure maximum effectiveness can have its challenges. It’s easy to get off track, and making sure everyone is on the same page is often difficult. If you want your meetings to be efficient and productive, you need to know how to run them effectively. If you aren’t sure how to run an effective online meeting, here are a few tips to help you get started.
Start with a Well-Communicated Agenda
Creating an agenda and distributing it to participants prior to the meeting helps ensure that everyone is on the same page. It also keeps everyone focused on the purpose of the meeting and the points that need to be addressed and can prevent you from getting sidetracked.
When creating the agenda, include opportunities to ask for input from others. Also, clearly note any points where decisions need to be made. Leave room for last-minute questions or additions, but make sure the overall agenda is concise. No one wants to be stuck in an online meeting for any longer than they have to be.
Send the agenda out to all of the participants a few days prior to the meeting. Ask everyone to read through it, and encourage them to reach out to you in advance if they have any questions or concerns.
Familiarize Yourself with Your Conference Call Service
If this is the first time you will be using a particular service, familiarize yourself with it well in advance of the meeting. It’s important to know how to set up a conference call ahead of time. Also, figure out exactly how the system works and how to utilize any specific features that you plan on using. Trying to learn how to use a new system while the meeting is taking place is unprofessional and can make things take much longer than they need to.
Make Sure Everyone’s System is Ready to Go
Online meetings often get off to slow starts due to technical difficulties. When you have several people participating and a few are having trouble with things like getting the meeting to load, speakers or microphones that aren’t working, etc., it’s easy to waste a significant amount of time.
Ask all meeting participants to restart their computers and make sure their microphones and speakers are working 20 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the meeting. Do the same on your end, too. If you are using a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, charge it up or make sure you have a charger close by. As the other participants to do so as well.
Keep Statements Short and Ask for Frequent, Specific Feedback
Pretty much no one enjoys getting on an online meeting and listening to the host drone on and on for what seems like forever. You may have a lot that needs to be discussed, but if you go through everything all at once, participants are likely to zone out or get distracted by games, social media, or other conversations. Keep your statements concise, and once you’ve made a point, ask for specific feedback. Avoid the generic “Does anyone have any questions?” question until the end. Instead, ask specific questions about what you’ve just gone over. Address them to the entire meeting or to a specific participant. If you are talking about something budget-related, for example, you may have a question to direct to your accountant or a project manager.
Keeping your messages concise and asking specific questions helps keep everyone engaged. People are also much less likely to zone out if they know there is a chance that you may be asking them something that they will need to know how to answer.
Use Video Whenever Possible
One of the great things about online meeting software is that it makes it easy to meet “face-to-face” via live video. People often skip the video portion, though, and choose to communicate through audio online. Many folks aren’t incredibly comfortable with people on camera, so it may seemingly make sense to just communicate via audio unless video is absolutely necessary.
Getting everyone on camera, however, typically results in more effective meetings. For starters, without video, participants have no visual cues to go on. They’ll hear what you are saying, but without being able to see you, they may not grasp the full meaning. Also, having everyone on video helps minimize distractions. Watching a video conference is more engaging, and participants are much less likely to slack off when they know that everyone can see what they are doing.
Finish with Clear Action Items
When your meeting ends, everyone should know exactly what needs to happen next or what to expect. Unfortunately, corporate meetings often conclude with vague promises and half-hearted agreements from participants. As the host of the meeting, it is your responsibility to assign next steps and establish due dates. If you are the one who is promising something to participants, make sure they know exactly when and how you will deliver on that process. Everyone should leave the meeting feeling informed; not like they have no idea what’s supposed to happen next.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to running effective online meetings, proper planning is vital. From making sure you are using the right conference call service and learning how to use it prior to the start of the meeting to creating an agenda and keeping your statements concise, there are all sorts of things to do to ensure that you next online will be efficient and productive.