Meeting Miser

As business expands, business meetings become via the web becomes the norm, and the ability and resources to gather all members of a team together for these meetings becomes much more difficult. The question we need to ask is how do we ensure that our remote co-workers are engaged even though they may be thousands of miles apart. The ideal solution to this problem is to include them virtually, but this poses some obstacles that need to be addressed.

Most of us have a natural tendency to interact and engage with people we can physically see. So, during meetings with both onsite and virtual members, it is crucial to be make special efforts to be inclusive to the offsite members. We recommend 5 tips to help your onsite and offsite members feel included:

Tip #1: Create a graphical depiction of the group.

There are three reasons why we do this

1. It is a reminder that we are connected even though we are not in the same location
   1. It allows the meeting leader and team members to keep track of who is actually in the meeting.
   2. If you have some people who are joining a face to face meeting remotely, it serves as a reminder that the remote people are also part of the meeting. We suggest having someone draw the team display on a flip chart on the wall so that all the members of the group in the room can see who is in the meeting.

Tip #2: Engage all the members of the meeting

We suggest every 3 slides or every 6 minutes to ask people for their input, conduct a poll or ask a question.

Tip #3: Structure the meeting to encourage the input of offsite members

Another strategy to ensure the inclusion of virtual team members is to structure the meeting primarily to encourage their input. This can be done through the discussion of issues that primarily affect the virtual team members. Since the topic is particularly applicable to them they will be encouraged to provide their own insight and participate in the discussion.

Tip #4: Limit the members to only those who are relevant

To add to the efficiency, it is important to include only those participants relevant to the meeting. This is particularly important for the offsite members, since they will feel alienated when the discussion does not even concern them. Keeping only relevant members at meetings will remove unneeded distractions and save time.

Tip#5: Establish relationships with the team

Our fifth tip is to spend time building relationships with the members. Studies tell us that virtual teams that trust tend to collaborate more effectively. One way to build trust is by spending time building relationships. We suggest you spend 5 minutes at the beginning of every meeting touching base with each other and it can be as simple as asking people to:

• Tell you one thing about your cultural heritage?
• Tell us one idiosyncrasy that others need to know in order to work more effectively together
• Conduct a team energizer

By following these 5 tips your team meetings will be optimized and the team can work at its full potential.