No Difference

If, like most, people, you have been  working from home for the last few weeks, you will no doubt have participated in (endured?) a number of online meetings.

Presumably, therefore, you will have a list of things that you should do to make such meetings effective.

If you compare that list to the things you would have written when answering the same question about face-to-face meetings, you will probably find little difference.

Of course there is the added issue of ensuring that everyone  has the right technology and knows how to use it  … but that is the easy part.

Apart from technology, key ’DOs’ are:

• make sure the purpose of the meeting is clear and shared by all participants. (Is it to collect and share information, to each a consensus, to make a decision?) 

• construct and share an agenda (with timed entries) so that people can prepare for the meetings. If appropriate, ensure people know which data/information they are responsible for bringing to the meeting

• make sure all participants have their chance to contribute (this means that you, if you are the meeting host, need to know the tools that are available within you platform of choice that enable you to do this)

• Stick, as far as possible, Ito the agenda/schedule

• Summarise each discussion and make any future actions and responsibilities  (with deadlines) clear

• If you are trying to reach a consensus, take advantage of any included polling features to collect views.

As we said above, apart from making sure everyone - especially you, as host - knows how to operate the software, these DOs apply just as well to face-to-face meetings.

This is quite common. Technology doesn’t fundamentally change what we do - it can make what we do more effective (or it can make us inefficient and ineffective faster!)