Online meetings are isolating, disconnecting and no one has their camera on. It doesn’t need to be this way! We can shape our online culture to be much healthier than it currently is. Enjoyable, meaningful, productive online sessions are possible. I know many of my facilitator friends are well across this already, but I’m surprised how many people still have little faith in the potential of online meetings, usually due to bad previous experiences.
Recently, I was about to start a 3 hour online session with a group of 8 leaders. One participant mentioned their displeasure with online meetings, due to the points I mentioned earlier. But with some gentle support and facilitation, the group got stuck into the conversations, shared the ‘microphone’ and came up with some robust, agreed ideas as to how to set a new, clear direction, to help them have more impact. They felt happy with what they achieved and were able to get the meeting done. If they had waited until everyone was available to be in the same physical room, given they were spread interstate, our meeting would not have happened until later this year.
At the risk of sounding daggy, I actually love helping participants in online sessions to have an enriching time together. Many people experience feeling lonely or isolated in work or in general, daily life, so it is a small but significant gift if we can run online sessions that pack a punch in terms of connection and enjoyment, plus the productivity benefits that flow from this. There is so much we can do for a great online meeting to happen, but it takes careful thought and planning, and facilitators who see the potential to create a connected online culture. What is one little thing you could do (or not do) to make your online meeting culture healthier? I hope you give it a go…