How to grab and keep participants’ attention, fulfill your agenda, and keep everyone looped in.

Before Your Video Conference

Your preparation for an effective online meeting should look a lot like your preparation for an effective in-person meeting, with some additional checks.

• Prepare an agenda. Agendas are even more important for virtual meetings, where email, social media, and internet tabs all compete for your attendees’ attention, never mind how easy it is to get distracted by a fun Zoom background. So prepare a clear agenda, and keep the conversation on course. If there isn’t enough meeting material to keep your employees engaged, evaluate whether this meeting is necessary right now.
• Invite the necessary attendees. Nobody likes to waste time in unnecessary meetings, especially when dogs, kids, and Netflix all call for work-from-homers’ attention. If you’re unsure if someone should (or would like to) attend, make their meeting invitations optional and let them decide. If certain agenda topics are relevant only to certain participants, put those items later in the agenda so that others can be released from the meeting early.
• Check your tech. This should become second nature when everyone first joins a meeting, to see their video preview and to test their microphone. For workers who are together in the same location, ask them to join the conference individually so that they have their own screen presence and don’t have to share a square.

During Your Video Conference

• Ask participants to mute their mics. Remember those dogs, kids, and Netflix? Everyone can hear that on an open mic! So good meeting etiquette dictates that mics be muted unless someone is actively speaking. Yes, some people will forget to unmute before they speak; gesturing at your ear or holding up a “You’re muted” sign will help them. On the flip side, very small meetings might appreciate open mics to hear socially affirmative responses like “mm-hm,” “yes,” or laughter.
• Direct the flow with your voice. Nobody can tell who you’re looking at in a virtual chat, and people’s body language may go unnoticed, so you’ll need to vocally steer some things. Prompt the people you want to hear from: “John, what do you think about this?” and remember to call out body language: “Jody, I see you nodding.” A strong voice is also helpful for anyone dominating the conversation: “Thanks for that, Dave. Who else has thoughts?” When multiple participants begin speaking at once, people are usually good at standing down and letting one speak first, but you may need to step in: “You first, Janet, then Natalie.”
• Silence is expected. Video-conferencing discussions move a bit slower than in-person ones. So don’t jump in for or jump on someone who doesn’t respond in an instant. They may be taking a moment to think or reaching to unmute themselves.
• Remember the chat features. Typed chat is a life-saving addition to video chat. You can send messages to the whole group or to any participants in private, which is a great way to discuss asides or to share details without interrupting.