During the pandemic we’ve all got used to virtual meetings and have learned some good habits during this time. Now as we begin to return to the office, either on a full-time or hybrid basis, we share five things we’ve learned from virtual meetings that we will be bringing back to face-to-face meetings:
- Time is of the essence – It is important to respect your fellow meeting attendees’ time, that means not turning up late or using your meeting time unwisely. There’s no reason why hitting the ‘join’ button needs to be any harder than turning up to a physical meeting room. Leave early, prepare your journey, get your cup of coffee ready in advance, and start the meeting off on a good note!
Most virtual meetings will have a clock running throughout the meeting and a reminder when it’s scheduled to end. This can help meetings to run in a more structured and organised way, ensuring there is time to talk about all agenda items. There’s nothing wrong with looking at your phone or watch to make sure you’re on schedule.
- Set goals and be prepared - When it comes to office meetings, and particularly recuring one, it’s sometimes easy to turn up without an agenda prepared, or worse – without a specific goal for the meeting!
Always set yourself or your team an objective for the meeting, what do you want to achieve? Setting a goal such as, ‘to obtain approval to present to senior management’, or ‘to secure agreement for your business plan’ is much more effective than some vague such as ‘to build a better relationship’. Having an objective will keep you meeting focused.
Once your goal is set, make sure you have an agenda, with three-five points you want to ensure get addressed. Take some time before the meeting to write up your agenda, or notes to make sure you can easily refer to it during the meeting, this will help to facilitate a smoother transition and ensure there is no risk of forgetting an important point.
- One at a time - On Teams and Zoom virtual meetings, only one person can speak at a time, it is much more respectful to colleagues and partners and can give the quieter members of the team a chance to get their voice heard, when we get back to face-to-face meetings, it will be important to remember this etiquette.
- The importance of active listening - When everyone on a Teams or Zoom meeting can see you, you are more likely to remain attentive and contribute to the discussion, whereas sometime in meetings it can be easy to switch off if you’re not currently speaking.
Here it is important to practice active listening, engaging with the speaker and trying to understand what message they are trying to convey, and what they expect from you.
Part of being an active listener is knowing how to show someone that you are actively engaging with what they’re saying; make eye contact, take notes, ask follow-up questions if given the opportunity and respond to any questions when needed.
- Follow-up is key – a simple ‘thank you for your time today’ or ‘it was good to catch up earlier’ can go a long way to demonstrating that you appreciate your colleague and value their time. In some situations it will be appropriate to call again to touch base, contact them with an update on agreed actions, or schedule a subsequent meeting, in these cases it must be a priority to follow-up promptly.
We’re looking forward to the return of in-person meetings this year, and hope to see many of you very soon!
