How to Make Online Meetings More Engaging

Oct 5, 2020

How to Make Virtual Engagement Easy

How To Make Online Meetings More Engaging

How to Make Online Meetings More Engaging

5 Essential Ingredients to Increase Virtual Connection

OK, so let’s be honest: Done wrong, virtual meetings can be exhausting and boring. Your team may already be ready to check out before you’ve even gotten started. But that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to dull, passive online gatherings.

In fact, I’ve taught tens of thousands of leaders and educators about five ingredients that will increase engagement. If you follow these suggestions, you’ll see a marked increase in participation and contribution from your group when you meet virtually.

Note: These are the same five ingredients that I shared in the first chapter. We chose to include these here because this book is not intended to be read sequentially. Beyond that, if you master this structure, it’ll drastically increase the quality of your gatherings. 

In order from the beginning of the meeting to the end, the key ingredients are:

  1. The unofficial start
  2. The context hook
  3. Putting connection before content
  4. Content designed for contribution
  5. A compelling closing

1. Unofficial Start 

Typically, we reward people for being late to meetings by waiting around for a few minutes until Wi-Fi catches up or the last straggler arrives. As a result, those who are on time have nothing to do at the beginning of the meeting. But there’s a better way!

So what’s the antidote?

Before everyone has arrived, engage participants with an activity or prompt as a casual—yet deliberate—beginning to the meeting. The unofficial start is a brilliant concept that was developed by Mark Collard, the Australian-based founder and director of playmeo, the world’s largest database of experiential collaborative learning exercises. And it’s a great way to spark immediate and purposeful engagement with your group.

There are lots of ways to initiate an unofficial start. One of my favorites is to simply pose a question. You can invite people to respond verbally. Yes, the unmute button does exist. And nobody will get hurt if they use it.

If you have a large gathering, ask participants to share their responses in the written chat. This basic exercise will allow people to immediately and purposefully engage, and warm up a little. Remember, the best way to avoid awkward silence is to create productive silence. Give people five to 10 seconds to think of their response before asking them to share. This unofficial start should commence a few minutes before a meeting officially starts (say, at 8:57 a.m. for a 9 a.m. meeting).

The unofficial start is a way to honor the people who show up early as well as those who arrive on time. It also extends understanding for people who show up late because of computer or internet issues. When we “commute” to our home office, we may have to deal with three kids, a barking dog, Wi-Fi issues and a computer restart. 

Lateness sometimes happens unexpectedly. Creating an unofficial start can completely shift the tone for the rest of your gathering. And it only needs to consume a tiny fraction of the total meeting time. 

2. Context Hook

You may know why you are in a meeting. Yet, as a leader or educator, you can’t assume everyone else does. You probably have even hosted or attended a meeting where you weren’t clear on the aim. The context hook is an idea that brings everyone into the same world for the brief moment of your meeting. 

In her book The Art Of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, Priya Parker suggests meeting for purpose rather than for time. Yet how often do we set meetings for 30 or 60 minutes only to fill that time with directionless chatter? We’re unlikely to meet our goals doing this. Merely having a meeting on our calendars is hardly reason enough to engage. Participants need to understand the purpose of the meeting.

You provide the context hook when you clearly state your intention for the meeting. Ideally, you should do this in a way that focuses on the needs of everyone who’s attending the meeting. Intention is very different from an objective, and it goes well beyond what you want to get done. An intention incorporates the needs of everyone.

Here’s an example from a remote workshop I led with 125 executives. They were a bit resistant to the idea of having an online-only leadership meeting. So I kicked things off by saying, “My intention in the next 90 minutes is to be a painkiller for the next 100 hours of virtual meetings you’ll be in.” Do you see how that empathetically acknowledges everyone’s pain and piques their curiosity? I knew that if I wanted them to tune in, I needed to provide that context hook.

The Latin root of the word intent or intention means stretching or to stretch. Think about intention like a rubber band that stretches around the needs of the whole and pulls people together.

Now, reflecting on everything we’ve discussed so far, feel free to pause for no longer than one minute. Then pick a meeting on your calendar this week, and write your intention for the meeting in the box below: 

3. Putting Connection Before Content

We spend most of our time online consuming content, and very little time interacting with others. That’s why putting connection first matters so much to support virtual engagement.

In the most basic sense, this is about connecting before you dive into a meeting’s agenda. If you want to share content with no interaction, my advice is to record a video. People can watch it and then move onto the next item on their to-do list. But if you’re meeting with people, you need to engage. Humans are wired to connect. Even the most resistant participants who prefer to turn their video off will benefit mentally and emotionally from putting connection before content.

When I talk about connection before content during a meeting, training or virtual workshop, people often push back. A common response is that there’s not enough time to connect before diving into a meeting’s full agenda. But I (and a large number of social scientists) would argue connecting increases productivity. It shifts the mindset of participants, so that they focus on contributing, not just consuming information. As I unpack in several other chapters, if you want engagement, you must design for it.

I like to share the wisdom of Bill Nye (yes, The Science Guy) to illustrate the importance of a connection-first approach. He once said, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” Personally, I find when I hold up that quote to the camera and read it out loud, even some of the curmudgeonly critics in the crowd come around. Everyone has something to contribute. Sidebar: This is one of the quotes in our deck of We! Engage Cards if you want to add those to your toolbox. 

By contrast, if at your next meeting only two people talk and seven people don’t say a word, you’ve flushed several new ideas, connections and insights down the toilet. The opportunity cost of not carving out time for purposeful connection before content is quite high.

I first learned about the concept of connection before content from author Peter Block, who’s done extensive work in consulting and civic engagement. He talked about how no work can be done without this personal connection. I have since adopted, dissected and built on the concept in a variety of ways. 

But one thing to be clear about is that connection before content is not an icebreaker. For starters, it has to relate to the purpose of the meeting. 

I was recently on a video conference call where a well-meaning facilitator started out with two or three goofy icebreaker games. While the activities made a few people smile, the chat was filled with complaints about the lack of relevance. When connection is done well, nobody should have to question the relevance, since the purpose is embedded directly into the question, prompt or activity. 

My go-to form of connection before content is to pose a question that’s intended to be answered in groups of three to four people. I work to make sure my question allows everyone to connect with each other while also relating to the purpose of the meeting. 

If you’re reviewing the last quarter, you might ask team members, “What was an ‘aha moment’ you had this past quarter? What led to that revelation or realization, and why was it important?”

After five or 10 minutes, bring the full group back together and have everyone quickly share their responses. This process increases contribution but doesn’t suck up too much of the group’s time. 

Remember to carve out a few moments to connect at the beginning of your meeting. Energy and morale are likely to take a hit if you don’t put connection before content. As I’ll unpack next, your content is still typically the meat and potatoes of your gathering. It’s likely going to fill at least 80% of your time together. But it shouldn’t take up 100% of the meeting. 

4. Content Designed for Contribution

If you want your online meetings to be more engaging, you have to design content for contribution, not just consumption. That means making it more visual and experiential. 

Naturally, you’ll invest more time in creating content for your meeting than on any other element. This is your agenda. It’s what you’ll cover, discuss and ultimately do in the lead up to the meeting and after you disperse. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be doing all the work or talking.

It’s easy to get into the bad habit of talking through a whole meeting while everyone else just listens. When you’re meeting online, there’s a great way to get out of this rut. You can do something virtually that you can’t do in person: Everybody can talk and listen at the same time via the chat. This is an amazing way to harvest lots of perspectives all at once and avoid groupthink. It can also be a great way of connecting people to your content.

When you’re getting into content, utilize the chat. Invite people’s perspectives. After your prompt, give everyone enough time to think quietly and write thoughtfully. Then allow time for people to read others’ perspectives. Nothing is more frustrating or fruitless than inviting comments from the group only to have an endless chat thread go unread. This can be avoided simply by saying, “Once you’ve shared your perspective, see if you can gain something valuable from somebody else in the group by scrolling up and reading through the chat for a couple minutes.” 

As you continue with the meeting, turn each agenda item over to the group. Frequently, invite others to react, respond or participate. This could be done in the chat, or by asking participants to unmute their microphones and share their perspectives verbally. Even a simple, “How are we doing on a scale of 1 to 10?” can break up the monotony of consumption.

Designing content for contribution rather than consumption will make a big difference in the flow and energy level of your meeting. It also makes your job easier! As leaders and educators, you have enough on your plate. You’re not solely responsible for what you discuss or how meetings go. Crowdsource content by frequently inviting feedback and participation. This will improve the quality of your meetings without putting all the responsibility on your shoulders.

At the same time, there are some simple ways you can make content delivery more engaging. One pro tip: Use analog visuals to make your content come alive and encourage engagement. I might, for instance, be curious how the group is thinking and feeling. When I ask about this, I like to hold up a stress ball brain and heart I have lying on my desk. It’s a lighthearted way to make the question more tangible.

Use stuff you’ve got lying around your home or your office for visuals, rather than constantly screen-sharing PowerPoint. When we screen-share, we maximize content and minimize connection and engagement. Any time that you’re able to stop screen-sharing and get your point across with a visual you hold up to the camera, your group will appreciate it. Better yet, invite the group to go grab a prop or visual that represents something you’re discussing. 

We’re more likely to retain information over the long term when it’s accompanied by visuals. The brain loves novelty too. PowerPoint was originally created in 1987. So, although it’s been updated, it has lost a bit of its luster.

5. A Compelling Closing

The final ingredient you need to make your online meeting more engaging is a compelling closing. 

I once met a woman who introduced herself to me as a “professional storyteller.” She was half my height and double my age with all white hair. I asked her, “What’s your number one tip for telling really phenomenal stories?” Her response was simple: “Just know the first sentence you’re going to say and the last sentence you’re going to say. You can fill in the rest in between.”

Adapting her advice, you should know how you’re going to open your meeting. Plan for an unofficial start, know your context hook and put connection before content. Then, prepare in advance for how you’re going to close the meeting. 

Too often, we get to the end of our meeting and we forget to close with anything deliberate. Remote meetings often end with people frantically checking email and scrambling to get onto the next task. Instead of this chaotic and stressful fade-out, close with a deliberate exercise or checkout process.

Wrap up your time together with your group’s words rather than your own. It could be everybody sharing a closing statement or one word in all caps in the chat describing how they feel. 

For more on this, check out the chapter titled “How to Keep A Remote Team Engaged” for five of my favorite closing activities.

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