Trainings

Designing Powerful Online Meeting Experiences

Key Takeaways

• Always mute yourself when not talking. Encourage cameras on for nonverbal cues. Let people know in advanced if you would like them to use cameras. Greet folks when they arrive
• Always ask first: Do we really need another online meeting?
  • What’s your competition? A lot during an online meeting…. (people are checking their email, phones, scrolling websites, cooking, folding laundry, etc.)
• Establishing the purpose. Ask: if this meeting is successful, what will it have accomplished?
• Building agenda items
  • Make sure it’s not a laundry list of topics (be realistic with your time)
  • Which agenda items could be handled outside the meeting?
  • Identify the person facilitating each agenda item and time needed
• Plan for variation during the meeting. Change what people are looking at every 2-5 minutes (slides, speakers, breaks, interacting with a sheet of paper etc.)
• Consider possible technical issues and have a plan B if your technology doesn’t work as planned
• “Groups of 5” rule: Our brains can only handle ~5 items at a time. Agenda items should be 5 words long and there should only be 5 items
• Online meetings need breaks! Every 45min
• During the meeting, capture key agreements, concerns, next steps on a screenshare of notes, or a shared google doc, etc. to honor the group’s ideas and contributions to the meeting
• Look at the camera as much as possible (if you have dual screens make sure you are looking at the screen where the camera is)
• Don’t fear silence in online meetings. Count slowly to 10 and people will speak up
• Follow up after meetings – send out a simple table with the tasks, responsible person, and the date they are needed by