Back in early-March, it seemed difficult to imagine how organizations like ours, which rely so heavily on in-person interaction, would manage to stay connected not only with our clients but internally as well.

Of course, Zoom and other videoconferencing technology was around long before COVID-19, but this crisis has magnified its importance and helped us appreciate the simple beauty of seeing someone’s face to go along with their voice. Plus, now that we’ve had weeks to tinker and streamline, we’ve found our virtual meetings and workshops to be incredibly valuable and productive —   to the point where we plan to keep using them post-COVID-19.

In that vein, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your virtual meetings:   

1. Don’t wait until the meeting gets started to get started.

The more you can get your group to think and interact with pertinent materials beforehand, the sooner you can get to the heart of the matter. If you’re going to be discussing a report or presentation, for example, send it a day or two in advance and solicit some initial perceptions, questions, and ideas. Then, assemble those into a few slides to help jumpstart and drive a  more efficient discussion, rather than simply walking through findings and implications.

2. Build-in structured participation and time for thinking.

We’ve found that breakout sessions in virtual workshops, where participants are separated into small videoconference groups, are invaluable for engaging participants and generating ideas. That said, it’s important to give people time to simply think. There’s a tendency in Zoom, and even during traditional teleconferencing, to fill up every minute you have together with voices.   Silence feels unproductive, right? But we’ve found that if you take a break of just 10 minutes, and couple that with a quick exercise or three-question poll or survey, you can gain thoughtful feedback and better engage those who have a hard time “breaking in” to the conversation virtually.

(Bonus tip: It helps to have a second moderator working behind the scenes who can collect and quickly organize the thoughts generated in this manner into slides to share with the group in real-time.)

3. Be mindful of  Zoom-fatigue.

Virtual meetings often require more energy and engagement. Add to that the effects of being cooped up, and they can take a lot more out of us. String a   few of them together, and the experience can be absolutely exhausting —   especially if half the meeting consists of someone talking through a report.   A senior executive of one of our clients told us he tries not to schedule more than three videoconferences in a day, and we consider that a wise piece of advice. Instead of filling your schedule with meetings, put tip No. 1 to use and get people thinking. Let some Slack, Teams, or other instant messaging conversation take place instead and prime the pump before the meeting happens. You just might find that a more engaging Zoom conference is also a much less exhausting one too.   

We know you’ve likely picked up some great tricks of the trade when it comes to staying connected during these times through Zoom and other virtual means. So, with that in mind, we’d love to put what you’ve learned to work for us in the same way you’re (hopefully) putting some of what we’ve learned to work for you. Please visit SIRhq.com/covid-19 to share your insights and learn more about these and other best practices.