Ask these 6 questions to save time, money and deliver online meetings that get work done

When you do need to meet in real-time, set yourself and your attendees up for online meeting success.

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I referenced my somewhat Don Quixote-like advocacy for upgrading my work team’s virtual communications in an earlier post. In mid-March 2020, when we all had to work from home in one fell swoop, I was unexpectedly and perfectly placed to help my colleagues move into the virtual workplace. Terrible context, but this was an example of a change happening because it had to. And I jumped on it.

Responding to the whiplash speed at which WFH happened, I feverishly set myself on building how-tos, quick tips, cheat sheets and other easy essentials types of assets to help the team get up to speed. And gradually, imposed change is shifting to accepting change. The appetite for online meeting skills grew and still does today. Hooray!

This isn’t about who had the last laugh, however. It’s about the sustainability of the virtual/distributed/remote work team.

At the start of WFH, playing with Zoom backgrounds, ‘what’s the meeting code?’ and ‘unmute yourself’ was understandable. And we’ve all seen those ‘online meeting fails’ videos on YouTube.

We’ve all got our shirts and pants on now, so it’s about ‘how can we do this… maybe forever?’

7 months in, remote work teams worldwide have come a long way, both because we had to and hopefully now because we see how it can work. As we continue working remotely in one way or another, the next step is to set things up for the long term.

There are so many angles to this, from remote leadership to WFHL (work from home life) which may inform future posts, but I’ll direct my attention to how we’re meeting online this time.

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Build a better online meeting that will garner better participation, lead to better progress, and if you really get this going, less time talking about work getting done, and more time getting work done.

To make this happen, ask these 6 questions:

1. Do we need to meet in real-time?

What’s the intention of the meeting? I’ve suggested the following, which could be combined to build a larger agenda.

• Presentation
• Proposal/pitch
• Discussion
• Decision
• Information
• Brainstorming
• Combination of these and/or others

Before hitting the New Meeting button on Outlook, ask if ‘the thing’ warrants a real-time, organized ‘be on the call at 11 am’ meeting, or can it be asynchronous and worked out over a fixed period with other channels? Or a mix of both?

I’m a fan of the mix, FYI.

Let’s run with you answering ‘Yes, I do think it warrants a real-time call’.

2. What’s the best ‘place’ to meet?

Now ask yourself:

• Do I have slides or video to share?
• Are there attendees who will need a phone option?
• Can we go to old school teleconference? (Link callers if you don’t have a teleconference system)
• Is the meeting platform I’ll use one that my attendees use already? Or is there a learning curve?

This is where your and your colleagues’ aptitude with the platform you choose is vital to the meeting’s success. There are ever-growing online meeting platform options. And even linking calls is a minor skill!

If you and your attendees have little or no experience with the one you chose, your meeting time may be absorbed with just getting everyone in. (Time and money loss)

Hopefully, your group has chosen 1 platform and is getting everyone up to speed, but still…

Hosts & attendees: learn the online meeting platform essentials and practice ahead of the meeting.

I’m sure we’ve all been ‘that guy’ who downloads GoToMeeting or Zoom 30 seconds before the meeting, thinking it was a simple hyperlink to the meeting space. But let’s not keep being that guy.

3. Who should be included?

Here’s another question that has ties to time and money.

Ask yourself:

• Who MUST be on the call?
• Who is OPTIONAL? (they can choose to join if they want)
• Who COULD be on the call? (It’s a toss-up of must and optional. Check with them before you invite them)
• Who is FYI (they are just aware that it’s happening)?

Making everyone essential to the meeting is the default setting in Outlook. Take a moment to separate those who must attend and those who would benefit from joining. And, most importantly, make sure everyone is available!

Hosts and attendees: It’s such a drag to keep adjusting a meeting. Keeping your online calendar up to date is an unseen time and money saver. I love it when I can ‘set it and forget it’ because all the attendees’ calendars were accurate.

If your team operates in different time zones, make sure the meeting is held in a window that works for your invitees, so everyone can attend.

You know the expression ‘there’s an hour of my life I won’t get back’? Your invitees should have an active role to play in the meeting. There are potential time and money losses when attendees didn’t need to be on the call.

4. What’s on the agenda?

…because you have a reason to meet! Even if you already practice any of the following points, it’s always worth sharpening up your agenda.

• Head back to question 1 to help set up your agenda. Those headers put that one-word clarity on each agenda item to frame the dialogue upfront.
• Assign speakers to their agenda items. This signals they should be prepared.
• Assign time blocks to each agenda item. You’ll see right away if your meeting is overloaded, or even too shallow, for the time you’ve allotted. If you haven’t booked the meeting yet, you can more confidently set the start and end.
• Allow for buffer time that can buy you time to get the agenda back on track.
• I think most importantly, send the agenda out with enough lead time, please? Not 10 minutes before the meeting. Those speakers who needed to prepare won’t be prepared.

A strong and clear agenda, sent in advance of the meeting, is another time and money saver when everyone is ready and prepared.

5. Who’s running the show… and how?

The rubber hits the road here. Make the meeting matter!

• If it’s not you, who is the chair? And who is the recorder?
• Follow the time blocks for each agenda item.
• Stay true to the objective of the agenda item (from question 1).
• If dialogue is going off-topic, put it in a ‘parking lot’ and decide how to continue on it.
• If dialogue is going long on an item, can you steer it to a conclusion? Or does it need to be deferred?
• Make sure all agenda items have a place to go if they aren’t concluded in the meeting time.
• Clearly define action items — who, what, when.
• You can also gain some more ideas in my post about building meetings like a talk show (seriously).

Staying focused on the agenda, keeping time, steering the meeting and managing the next steps are hallmarks of a strong meeting chair. And along the way, managing time and saving money. We’re all capable of this. If you haven’t chaired a meeting yet, ask your supervisor to give you a chance!

6. How will actions be… actioned?

If action items aren’t completed, the results are time and progress losses, I’m sure you would agree.

And I know we have all been there. The action items remain on the meeting minutes, which once distributed, languish in our email inbox unattended until someone asks for a follow-up.

Or, in the next meeting, your action item is called and ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t get a chance to do it’, is your response. But how and why did you not get a chance?

It’s up to each of us to action our action items, and I’m not letting any of us off the hook.

• Take charge of your action item(s) when they are assigned to you in the meeting. Make your own notes and outline your next steps right away.
• When the minutes come out, double-check that your notes and the minutes match. This avoids confusion when you report back.
• Set up proper follow-up steps for your action item(s) to be completed let’s say 2 days before the meeting.
• Allow for external factors over which you might not have influence.
• Meeting recorder and/or chair: extract the action items from the minutes and post them in a channel for all attendees to refer to at a glance. This immediately removes the buried minutes in the inbox problem.
• 2 days before the next meeting: meeting recorder and/or chair, check-in on that same channel with a reminder.

Taking ownership of action items shows accountability, respect for the project and the process, and saves time & money when you deliver as promised.

Let’s get better at our meetings, and maybe we won’t need to have as many of them!

I’d love to know if you try this approach and how it worked for you!