As a facilitator of virtual meetings, are you the hub of all communications or do you empower participants to interact among themselves?
Virtual participation, interactivity, isn’t just a ‘nice to have’. As with in-person meetings, two-way conversations, facilitator-participants, and participants-participants, are a key determinant of group success.
Knowing how to keep meetings participatory in the virtual world is both: challenging, and a necessary skill for virtual facilitators. As a virtual facilitator, you choose:
- monologue or dialogue
- more or less (meeting) control
- timing of interactions with participants
- what to do when there is non-participation
- and more…
Here’s a two-minute screencast I created (as part of my virtual collaboration e-course) to look at the the participation challenge, and some ways to meet that challenge:
Knowing what you should be doing as a virtual meeting facilitator or participant is different from actually doing it.
For example, at an in-person meeting, these actions might take place:
- The facilitator asks a meeting participant for input
- The facilitator divides the team of 9 into 3 small groups
- The facilitator points to an item on a flip chart, taped to the wall
- A participant raises their hand to ask a question
- A participant talks with their (meeting) neighbour
Your challenge: How might each of those (above) in-person meeting actions be accomplished in a virtual meeting?
Here are a couple of top-notch books (I use these) that will help you keep virtual meetings participatory:
- The Virtual Training Guidebook: How to Design, Deliver, and Implement Live Online Training, by Cindy Huggett
- Click: The Virtual Meetings Book, by Michael Wilkinson and Richard Smith
What’s your favourite technique or resource that you draw on to keep virtual meetings participatory?
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