10 Tips for Running a Productive and Engaging Virtual Meeting

I recently participated in a virtual meeting that engaged everyone and wasted no one’s time. People joining from their home or office felt heard and seen. No one seemed to multi-task. And the goals of the meeting were accomplished. Can you believe it?

In fact, I haven’t just experienced it once. I’m starting to see it a lot, even with the meetings that are most tempting to decline. People are getting better at virtual meetings. Are you?

With the innovation of three-way calling and the conference line, virtual meetings became commonplace in the 90s in much of the world. In the 2000s, more organizations shifted to web-based conference technology and live presence video across offices. Today, web-based technology offers a blend of phone and computer audio and video capability. Tools like WebEx and Zoom make it easy to “see” other attendees while engaging everyone at multiple levels.

If you’re not up to speed on how to take advantage of these technologies, you may be missing opportunities to engage and influence others. But whether you’re using the latest and greatest of current technology or not, below are some tips that will make your virtual meeting awesome. (For more guidance on running effective online meetings and training, check out author and speaker Kassy LaBorie. She’s a master on this subject.)

1. Welcome people by name. Seems obvious, right? But it doesn’t always happen, and internal meetings are the biggest culprit. People enter the room without being greeted by the host. If you want people to engage and feel valued, remember Dale Carnegie’s words: “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” If you’re the meeting host, arrive early and simply say something to joiners like, “Welcome, Maria. Glad you’re here.”
2. Link phones to names. It’s hard to know who to mention by name if people join the meeting by phone only. To overcome this barrier, write down the names of everyone on the call (if there aren’t too many people on the call to find out). Even better, request that people log in using the participant code/ID provided by the platform. They may have to log out and back in to the meeting, but this will allow the host to put a name with the number.
3. Level the playing field. It almost never works when some people are together in person and others are virtual. Either have everyone in person, or everyone virtual. In fact, people typically shouldn’t share a computer or phone. Each person should join on their own line so that they can be named independently and use the full functionality of the call. This might mean having people leave their desks to make the call from private space.
4. Be diligent about muting/unmuting. The classic virtual meeting derailers? The person who is unknowingly breathing audibly and disrupting the call and the person who’s talking and doesn’t realize they’re on mute. So just get this under control right away. Meeting hosts can make a quick announcement about how muting works and whether people are expected to stay muted.
5. Open in a compelling way, and have an agenda. Especially with virtual meetings, people need to be reminded why they are there and what to expect. Even on recurring meetings, make a quick anchor to the “why” of the meeting and tell everyone what will be covered and in what order. This will cue people that the meeting has value and will be facilitated well.
6. Don’t talk for more than 90 seconds at a time. Recently, I was presenting to one other person over the phone. It was clear the person was multi-tasking and not fully engaged. So, after about a minute of talking, I stopped and asked for their opinion. This startled the person. They assumed I would just talk at them because I was in virtual presenter mode. Moments later, I paused again. I asked for their input after about another minute of talking. They were engaged for the rest of the call because I had made it clear: This is a dialogue not a download. Even with hundreds of people on the virtual meeting, you can stop regularly to encourage participation.
7. Keep your slides and points simple. As Donald Miller says, “If you confuse, you lose,” so make sure people can understand your slides or comments immediately. Your slides should be digestible in about six seconds. To do this, use pictures, simple graphs, large fonts, and very little content. Don’t include more than six bullets, and no more than six words per bullet. If you’re audio only, prioritize brevity. Only tell people what’s essential. Let them ask you to elaborate.
8. Continually go to the chat, polls, or whiteboard. Most virtual meeting platforms now include multiple layers of communication. People can send written messages, respond to polls, draw on the screen, use emojis, change their status, and split into separate audio groups. If you host virtual meetings with any regularity, you owe it to people to learn how to use these functionalities. They aren’t gimmicks; they increase participation and engagement.
9. Call on people. I like to tell people upfront that I’m going to ask people to participate. It’s important to do this in a way that minimizes discomfort. You can say, “John, in a moment can you please come on audio and tell the group your opinion of this topic? You have a lot of background on this idea we’ve been discussing around employee benefits. John, what do you think?” Notice how I cued John to increase his attention and followed that with guidance for John’s response. This should make John feel less insecure about being called out.
10. Record the meeting, and send it out. Another benefit of virtual calls is that they can be saved and shared. This allows people to re-listen or, more likely, take in the meeting at a later time if they were unavailable for the live meeting.

Don’t waste people’s time with boring virtual meetings. Aspire to make virtual meetings your best meetings. The technology enables multi-layered interaction and engagement. You can do this.

What virtual meeting on your calendar can you upgrade?

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