Virtual Meeting: How to Make it Effective & Successful

As the Covid-19 outbreak started spreading around the world, many companies asked their employees to work remotely from home in an effort to slow down the pandemic. However, with no intent to slow down, the virus continues to wreak havoc in many countries all over the globe. Although many nations have gone under lockdown, businesses still need to keep running and given the current scenario one of the most effective ways of this is by virtual means.

Working remotely through virtual means is a new reality for most. Whilst people are used to having video conference meetings, it is a method mostly used only when absolutely necessary. However, now that everyone is working from home, holding meetings through apps over the internet has become a regular thing. Nevertheless, setbacks like slow connectivity, audio/visual delay are still common. Therefore, it is important that managers work towards helping their team adjust to these issues and at the same time keep their virtual meetings effective and productive.

Here are a few tips on how to make this happen:

Before conducting a virtual meeting, make sure to test the technology ahead of time. All the team members should get familiar with the software being used and all its major features to ensure as little setbacks caused as possible.

Setting clear objectives and preparing an agenda in advance is crucial for a successful meeting whilst during the meeting, it is important to come to a conclusion regarding each issue discussed and clearly outlining the next steps (including a timeline and accountability).

Perhaps one of the most difficult things faced during a videoconference meeting is letting everyone put forward their opinion whilst making sure that no one is talking over another and no one is getting left behind either. To ensure this doesn’t happen, the team leader can periodically call on the participants of the meeting to state their opinion and come to a conclusion only once everyone has spoken.

Lastly, keeping the meetings as short as possible and the number of attendees to an absolute minimum will make certain that only the important matters are discussed between the key persons.

Meeting virtually and working from home is still a rather new concept to many people around the world. However, once mastered, you will be amazed at how much one can get done remotely and through virtual meetings. But in order to be successful, it is important that all the team members get comfortable with it and work with the same zeal and determination so that even amidst this pandemic, businesses can continue with little loss to productivity.