Running a successful meeting is an art, and it’s one that’s further complicated when it takes place online. When you bring a group of people together in a meeting, you’re taking up a large number of man-hours, so you’ve got to ensure you’re maximizing that time.
Making sure you stay on point and have an online meeting that efficiently achieves its goals isn’t easy, but these simple tips can help.
Have a Well-Planned Agenda
We’ve all been in a meeting that seems to go on and on without any real direction. This can be highly frustrating for everyone involved and waste people’s precious time. It’s easy to get side-tracked and veer from your main topics when you’re running a meeting, but if you’ve got an agenda, then you at least have a guide to keep you on track.
This is as true for in-person meetings as it is for online meetings, so make sure you’ve done your planning and you’ve got a clear idea of the timelines you want to stick to.
Encourage Pre-Checks
Don’t waste the first fifteen minutes of every meeting, making sure everyone’s camera and microphone are working. Make sure everyone has checked they’ve got their technology in order before they join the call.
When someone isn’t prepared, they’re not just wasting their own time; they’re wasting everyone else’s time, too, so highlight the importance of making sure everyone does their pre-meeting checks.
Make it Personal
It’s hard enough to feel confident in a room full of people, let alone when you’re speaking in front of a bunch of faces on a computer screen.
Starting the meeting by allowing everyone to introduce themselves is a good way of letting everyone know who is involved with the meeting and making them feel a little more confident in the environment.
Limit Distractions
With people tuning in to meetings from their homes, there can be a lot of distractions around that you don’t have when you’re in a meeting room. It’s important that meeting participants are aware of this and make every effort to limit distractions.
Encourage people to find a quiet space and make use of appropriate backgrounds offered through the software you’re using.
Take the Hassle Out of Transcribing Notes
There’s no point in having an important meeting just for people to go away and forget what was said. It’s vitally important to have meeting minutes, but actually transcribing a large online meeting isn’t very easy.
This is where technology such as Verbit.ai can make a huge difference. It can give you accurate, fast meeting notes, allowing you to maximize the benefits of your meeting.
Summarize
Make sure you pull everything together at the end of your meeting and come up with some action points. Everyone should understand what they need to do and when they need to do it, and this is only possible by concisely summarizing everything at the end.
You’ve put all the hard work in, so make sure you finish the meeting on a strong note.
