In our coalition work, we are constantly planning and hosting meetings, projects and events. Depending upon our time, staff/leader capacity and partner availability, these can have varying levels of complexity and require us to consider many factors. Last week, during one of these planning meetings, I came up with lots of ideas that would result […]
Take your own advice. Read More »
As we plan and prepare our coalition meetings, we have lots of decisions to make about the type(s) of meetings we host. We once again have opportunities to meet in person, sometimes we host hybrid meetings and we continue to have most of our meetings in a virtual platform. Prior to 2020, virtual meetings were
Top 10 Tips for Facilitating an Online Meeting Read More »
When I first developed this blog post in April 2020, I never realized we all would STILL be primarily leading online meetings in April 2021. Since we are still mostly leading online meetings, let’s revisit my Top 10 Tips for Facilitating Online Meetings for you again today!
Top 10 Tips for Facilitating an Online Meeting Read More »
This “Zoom background” post has been developed by one of my colleagues and friends, Jamie Studts, who always has an interesting background as part of his zoom meetings. Thank you, Jamie! I should start by noting that I do not have any specific training in technology; therefore, it is very possible and even likely that
Zoom backgrounds: How can I make them work? Read More »
Not everyone is going to be comfortable with online meetings even though that continues to be what we are primarily doing in order to connect with our partners, colleagues, families and friends. Hopefully, you have tried some of the “tips” from last week’s post on helping non-tech savvy participants with online meetings. If you missed
Helping non-tech savvy participants with online meetings: Part 2 Read More »
We have finished our official “top 10 online meeting tip series;” however, some of you have requested a bit more help on helping non-tech savvy participants be successful with online meetings. Just because we have moved all of our meetings to be online meetings doesn’t mean that it’s easy for everyone to participate. We need
Helping non-tech savvy participants with online meetings: Part 1 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 »
As we facilitate meetings, it can be difficult to engage our participants and keep them engaged (especially if it is a particularly long meeting!). One of the strategies that has helped participants stay engaged is to call on people directly – in a kind and encouraging way. It definitely takes courage as a facilitator and
Choosing courage over comfort Read More »