Tips to Take Your Virtual Meetings From Good to Great

Steve, a director of sales and general manager for the Americas region at a global manufacturing company was confident that his team meetings were already in good shape, but he knew they could be better. He held these meetings every other week for a team of about 35 members across North and South America.

I sat in on two of his team meetings and it turns out Steve had every right to be confident about the quality of his meetings. They were well-run, and as a result of my two meeting audits and feedback, his team meetings are now of the caliber every leader dreams of: Prepared participants, ready to present and discuss all topics, typically within the allocated amount of time. People remain actively engaged throughout. Progress is noted, ideas shared, questions posed, problems resolved, outstanding actions are summarized, and new roles are assigned for the next meeting. Most importantly, meetings always start on time and never run late.

Secrets to a Successful Virtual Meeting

Steve doesn’t have any secret sauce. What he does have are some well-thought-out processes, guidelines and tools, along with a true gift for written and spoken communications, excellent listening skills, and a keen understanding about how to make the best use of every minute of meeting time for his busy team.

Here are a few secrets to Steve’s success, along with a link to one of his templates, which he has generously agreed to share with Reworked readers.

Publish your agenda in advance. Make sure it’s realistic, time-bound and relevant

Steve sends out a detailed agenda at least five business days ahead of time, after gathering topic requests from his team.

The agenda document, sent both as an email attachment and included in the meeting request, includes pertinent details that allow everyone to come thoroughly prepared for a productive conversation.
Roles are clearly spelled out, along with objectives for each topic, allotted time and the preparation needed. For example, people might be asked to come with questions about a particular topic, status updates or ideas to share.
Steve also indicates what form of discussion each topic will take: information sharing, problem solving, brainstorming, status updates, etc. This way, everyone is ready to dive in at the outset.

Assign 3 key roles to make each meeting run smoothly

Steve appoints different people to play each of three roles: greeter, time manager and action master. In addition to documenting the responsibilities in writing, Steve also schedules a group call to make sure everyone is in synch. In brief:

The greeter logs in at least 5 minutes in advance, welcoming people as they join, making sure all are connected properly, and perhaps most important, asks questions to stimulate conversation as people wait for the meeting to begin.
The time manager uses the detailed agenda to keep topics on track, providing typed or audible alerts when it’s almost time to move on.
The action manager contacts people in advance for a status update, using the action list from the previous meeting, and then tracks the status during the current call, summarizes actions verbally at the end and sends an update to the Steve afterwards.

Restate objectives and meeting norms at the start of each call

Steve reviews a couple of slides containing both meeting objectives and meeting norms. An objective might be: “The purpose of our meeting is to improve communication across all of the business functions and to better understand how we’re performing.”
Meeting guidelines might include: Share the air. Be on time. Log into WebEx from your computer. Unmute yourself before speaking — we will hear you better. Rather than read each line, Steve chooses one or two points to emphasize each time. Even though most people know the drill, by verbally reinforcing these objectives and guidelines, Steve helps ensure that people live by them.

Plan for active engagement

As he designs each agenda, Steve builds in several intentional opportunities for interaction throughout the two-hour meetings.

For example, he will include a polling question or two, sometimes simply to keep things lively and other times because he’s looking for some quick responses on a particular topic.
He prepares questions in advance, some of which go along with specific topics and others that he keeps handy to prompt a discussion (though these are rarely needed).
Topics and related conversations are sequenced to ensure a good pace.
Steve frequently pauses to ask particular people to share their unique perspectives as a way to keep conversation flowing and cross-pollinate insightful ideas and best practices.
He uses a meeting preparation checklist to make sure he doesn’t skip any crucial steps.

Thorough preparation is the price of admission

Everyone on Steve’s team knows exactly what they need to do several days before each meeting, whether it’s to review a report, prepare a brief presentation, share results, suggest ideas or ask questions. Not only does he state expectations clearly in the agenda he sends in advance, but Steve also contacts each topic leader directly to make sure s/he understands what’s needed, allotted time and the goal of each conversation.

Make it easy for people to catch up on their own time

People who can’t attend the actual team meeting can catch up in at least two ways: Listen to a recording of the meeting, which includes voice and visuals, or read meeting notes, which are richly-detailed, well-formatted, include pertinent visuals, and an action summary at the end. (People notify Steve ahead of time if they cannot attend, so no time is lost waiting for anyone.) Either way, it’s the responsibility of the absent person to catch up and be prepared for the next meeting, including reporting on any actions they may have been assigned in absentia.

Not everyone can run consistently productive virtual meetings like Steve does. But with a bit of self-reflection, the capacity to absorb and apply focused feedback, and the willingness to make changes — even if only baby steps — everyone can learn to transform their virtual meetings from pretty good to really great.

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