It is easy for us to focus on all the things that are changing and to become overwhelmed with all of the change. While lots of things are changing and there may be some opportunities for new partnerships and new opportunities, not everything has to change. One of the most important things that needs to […]
Change: Not everything has to change Read More »
You may have facilitated a fantastic online meeting where you engaged participants, made important decisions and made progress on your most important projects; however, the real test of a “good” meeting happens after the meeting is over. Once you have had a good meeting, it is critically important to follow-up as quickly as possible to
Your meeting is as good as your follow up Read More »
As we discussed in our online meeting facilitation tip #1, knowing our meeting purpose is essential to figuring out who needs to participate and how long we need to meet. We have a tendency to schedule most meetings for an hour and then figure out what we are going to talk about within that time
Do we really need to meet for an hour? Read More »
Most of the blog posts in this online meeting facilitation series are related to engagement. We want to foster and encourage engagement in order to make the most out of our online meetings but we cannot often tell if folks are engaged or if they have lost interest and started online shopping or checking their
The importance of a good “chat” Read More »
We have all been on conference calls or online meetings where someone put us on “hold” and the music blasted through the meeting audio. We have also all been part of meetings with barking dogs, screaming children, flushing toilets, lawn mowers mowing and all sorts of other background noises. While it definitely helps us be
You don’t really want to hear everyone all of the time! Read More »
When we are in person, we often have “ground rules, guiding principles or working agreements” that help us set expectations for participation. It’s important to set expectations for your online meetings too! Those who know me well have been in enough online meetings with me that they know I’m going to ask them to show
Set expectations about participation Read More »
I had not originally planned to address this in my “online meeting series” but I’ve had lots of comments from friends and colleagues about how tired they have been after sitting through an endless number of online meetings. With everything changing rapidly with COVID-19 and folks wanting to stay connected and figure out some sort
Overcoming online meeting fatigue Read More »
One of my favorite things to do is facilitate a small or large group meeting. I know it may sound completely crazy to some, but I am totally energized by active discussions and participations, “aha” moments and seeing a group move to collective action and a plan forward. While these skills are also important in
Facilitating Online Meetings: How are they different? Read More »
Facilitating groups can be extremely rewarding but they can also be extremely exhausting. One of the situations that makes facilitation particularly exhausting is when there is a lack of trust among group members. This may be trust among just a couple of group members between one another or it may be a lack of trust
Facilitation: Lack of trust Read More »