— by Tom McGehee

With almost everyone working from home due to the Covid19 virus, many are having to participate in virtual meetings. Some organizations already work this way a lot; for others this may be a new challenge. Either way, most virtual meetings are not as productive as physical meetings.

The greatest challenge to virtual meetings is the lack of engagement.

When participants are on a screen or on a phone, it’s very hard to resist the temptation to multi-task. It’s so easy to hit the mute button, pull up other screens and only engage when your name or job is mentioned. 

Here are some things you can do to help increase engagement and productivity in virtual meetings:

Choose video over conference call. Having a conference call will ensure one thing – after hitting the mute button participants will start doing emails or other work while still “listening” to the on-going conversation. If you want at least minimal participation, use a video conferencing tool.

Treat this like a meeting, not a phone call. Our attitude in most physical meetings is, “OK we’re here, let’s get some work done”; often, we don’t treat virtual meetings the same way. Our daily interaction with our screens is different than our interactions with people. We scan multiple applications, expect immediate response, and abbreviate every interaction as much as we can. When we participate in a virtual meeting, we can’t help but have that same “screen attitude”. We lose focus very quickly. Productive virtual meetings begin with participants seeing this as an actual meeting, not a YouTube video. 



Use pre-work. If you want the most out of a virtual meeting, make it as short as possible. One way to do that is by presenting any information the group needs for the meeting before the meeting. This can be sending out pre-reads, or even shooting a simple video presentation with your camera phone. Keep the information presented short. Focus on only what is essential for this specific meeting. One rule of thumb, how much information can I share that participants can take in by reading five minutes before the meeting - because that’s what most will do. Presenting information ahead of time allows the meeting to focus more on participant interaction.

Call on members often. As the leader of the virtual meeting, you have to realize your need to also act as a facilitator. Typical office interactions don’t apply here. You have to continually call on people to respond. Manage the length of the responses, and make sure everyone is participating. The more you do this the more people stay engaged.

Break up the work. Video conferencing tools like Zoom allow participants to break into separate “breakout rooms” for simultaneous discussion. It’s like having participants around tables and asking them to discuss at their table and then share with the larger groups. This technique in a physical gathering is very effective to identify patterns, increase ownership for ideas, and increase participation in conversations. Using this type of “breakout” in a video call can have the same result.

Write it down. Anytime you have a group conversation, a person’s response is impacted by the responses of those that spoke before them. This is intensified in a virtual meeting. If you ask for input, by the time you get to the third or fourth person the typical response is, “yea, I pretty much agree with what’s been said.”  The essence of individual thought, and thus, original thought and possible innovation, is lost. If you want the best thinking from all participants, ask them to write their answer or comment down. Then, when called upon, have each person read exactly what they wrote. This both engages participants and makes for a much more robust conversation.

Tom McGehee is the creator of the Results-based Conversation Method for collaboration and the founder of WaveChanger – An organization that helps companies go faster and churches go deeper. 

For more information on COVID-19, please see our page highlighting some of the best resources out there for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs in this season.

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[Thanks to Tom McGehee for the cover photo]