Virtual meetings were new and exciting when we first started—what a breath of fresh air from all those meetings in the office, and look, we can wear sweats! But have our virtual meetings really streamlined those long and unnecessary in-person meetings or are they merely replicating them online? Every meeting should be evaluated for efficiency (and necessity) now and then. So here’s a reminder on how to grab and keep your participants’ attention, fulfill your agenda, and evaluate your meeting’s efficiency.

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.

• Send an agenda. Agendas are even more important for virtual meetings, where email, Teams chat, and Wordle all compete for attention. So prepare a clear agenda and keep the conversation on course. If there isn’t enough purposeful meeting material to keep your employees engaged, evaluate whether this meeting is necessary right now.
• Choose your attendees carefully. Nobody likes to waste time in unnecessary meetings, especially when dogs, grumbling stomachs, and Netflix all vie for attention. If you’re unsure if someone should (or would like to) attend, make their meeting invitations optional. If certain agenda items are relevant only to certain participants, put those items later in the agenda so that others can be excused early.
• Check your tech. This should be second nature when everyone first joins a meeting, to review 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 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, stomachs, and Netflix? Everyone can hear that on an open mic! (Plus street noise and other ambient sounds; you’d be surprised.) Good meeting etiquette dictates that mics be muted unless someone is actively speaking; however, 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 things. Prompt the people you want to hear from: “Jeanine, what do you think about this?” and remember to call out body language: “Franklin, I see you nodding.” A strong voice is also helpful versus anyone dominating the conversation: “Thanks for that, Phil. 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, Marina, then Anne.”
• Expect silence. Video-conferencing discussions can move a bit slower than in-person ones. So don’t discount someone who doesn’t immediately respond when called on. 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. 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.

After Your Conference

Debrief time! How did the meeting go? Did you stay on track and meet your goals? Did the participants actively engage or did they turn off their cameras ten minutes in? As always, ask yourself how this meeting could improve. Could it be shorter, include different people, or focus on different things? Is the meeting necessary at all or might it be better as an email?