You’re a Brand Strategy professional with a remote team. How can you make video conferencing more productive?

As much as you might love your team, avoid meetings that could be chats or emails. Not everything has to be a synchronous exchange. When you book a meeting, make sure you have an agenda beforehand. If the agenda doesn't have enough topics, skip the meeting. However, if you do have a meeting, try to build culture within it: Make sure everyone makes a contribution, avoid the teacher-classroom dynamic, ask questions often and try to have some debate and banter. Everyone hates dry meetings. Remember: Being human with your team doesn't equal being unprofessional.

As a Brand Strategy leader of a remote team, I enhanced our video conferencing productivity by instituting structured protocols centered around clear goals and agendas. Here's the condensed strategy: Pre-Meeting Agenda: Issued detailed agendas 24 hours before meetings to outline objectives and discussion points. Meeting Goals: Started each session by clarifying its objectives to maintain focus. Timed Discussions: Assigned specific durations to agenda items to ensure efficient time management. Action Items: Concluded meetings by summarizing decisions and assigning tasks with deadlines. Monthly Feedback: Solicited team feedback monthly to refine our approach continuously.

The most important the moderator have to cut unnecessary and unrelated conversation during the meeting also the meeting should be finish in an hour, have to set the time limit

Meetings are nobody's favorite! Make sure there are clear objectives that has to be discusses or it can be a brainstorming or exploratory meeting. The agenda should be loud and clear to everyone for expectation setting and needed preparation.

For online meetings, I am reluctant to begin any session without an agenda. Ideally, with approximate time stamps of each touch point of the session. It helps keep a check on the quality and duration of the meeting, as well as aiding in tracking the direction of the session, keeping it productive and relevant.

Brand Strategy teams need easy ways to communicate, share ideas, and work through project stages from discovery to implementation. This used to be in-person, on a whiteboard, where we were free to do all the 'sharing' we needed because it was wiped away when the key takeaways and steps were captured at the end of these sessions. Today, we need to be clear on goals for meetings in the invite - are they working sessions to test out ideas, are they planning sessions to align teams, are they timeline sessions to document key steps? And we need to be disciplined on using the tools according to the goal. Choosing the platform (and tools) that can support the meeting goal is the #1 make/break point to Brand Strategy session productivity.

Data-Driven Platform Selection: For instance, we found that platforms with advanced features like high-definition video, seamless screen sharing, and interactive whiteboarding increased meeting engagement by 40%. Insights on Interaction Tools: According to our internal survey, using interactive and motivational tools like Cooplay during meetings has boosted team morale by 30% and improved idea generation by 25%. Efficiency Metrics: We track metrics like meeting duration, participation rates, and post-meeting feedback scores. By analyzing this data, we've optimized our meeting lengths, reducing them by an average of 15% while increasing productivity and team satisfaction.

Many teams at the beginning will be hesitant to invest in Pro subscriptions: My advice is you do. There's nothing as annoying as having to re-start meetings from because time limits expire. Also, use software like Fathom – a note-taking app that records, transcribes and summarizes meetings. It will save you hours, and will make sure you don't miss important parts of what's being said because you were taking notes on what was said before.

Popular platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Slack offer seamless communication. Before committing, take advantage of trial periods to assess firsthand how well the tools integrate with your brand strategy and team dynamics. Don't choose the platform for your team. Let them experiment and make a collective choice. What you need is a tool that can amplify your team's collaborative efforts, not the one you think is cool.

Choosing the right video conferencing platform is crucial. Assess factors like participant capacity, duration, features, security, and compatibility. Prioritize platforms supporting necessary functions like screen sharing and recording. Conduct pre-meeting tests to troubleshoot potential issues, ensuring a seamless and effective virtual collaboration experience tailored to your specific needs.

Here's a norm that feels like a cheat code: No speaking over each other: You let each person speak until they're done, and only after others can chime in. This rule comes with an accessory rule: Unless someone is presenting, no more than 5-6 minutes of talk per person.

Establishing etiquette on video calls keeps the meeting moving forward without distractions. Especially if you work in a remote culture, it is important to set expectations in advance around setting time for friendly hellos, turning the camera on, using mute, and contributing to the conversation.

Establishing norms and etiquette for video conferencing is essential for maintaining professionalism, productivity, and collaboration within a remote team. Here are some norms and etiquette guidelines to consider implementing: Punctuality: Start and end meetings on time to respect everyone's schedules. Encourage team members to join a few minutes early to test their audio and video settings. Dress Code: Even though remote, encourage team members to dress professionally during video conferences, especially if client meetings are involved. Background: Advise team members to choose a neutral and uncluttered background for video calls to minimize distractions. Virtual backgrounds can be used if necessary.

Ensure smooth and productive video meetings by setting clear norms. Encourage microphone muting for non-speakers, utilize chat for questions, and emphasize proper lighting and attire. Assign roles like facilitator and timekeeper to maintain structure. Respect time limits and agendas to enhance efficiency. These guidelines foster a professional and focused virtual environment, minimizing confusion and maximizing the effectiveness of your video conferences.

Antes da videoconferência, envie uma agenda detalhada para todos os participantes. Isso ajuda a manter o foco e garante que todos estejam preparados. Encoraje a contribuição de ideias e feedback durante toda a reunião. Integre elementos visuais, como slides, vídeos ou infográficos, para tornar a apresentação mais visualmente atraente e facilitar a compreensão de conceitos complexos. Reserve um tempo no final da reunião para networking informal, permitindo que os membros da equipe conversem e construam relacionamentos fora do contexto de trabalho.

It's so easy to get caught up in the lecture mood when you host these meetings but time after time take a breather and ask direct questions (You can call names to make things move faster) What I usually do is set the pace of the meeting in the first few minutes and then pass the mic around to get any inputs from all team members. This same thing repeats itself at different intervals within the meeting and finally at the end I ask "Are they any worries, comments or remarks ? They must have one of those things each

Collaboration and facilitation are learned skills. Make sure there is one person facilitating the meeting, and various collaborative steps together lead to the insights and results from a meeting. Be on time, and follow the meeting agenda as per objectives and needed answers/solutions.

One of my favorite ways to connect with my teams, managers, and direct reports is by prioritizing dedicated time for personal conversations. Whether this happens organically or is an intentional agenda item, I believe in fostering a work environment where people can bring their personal identities into the discussion. I often incorporate a "Question of the Week" at the top of my agenda to initiate more fun or meaningful conversations, and it's been a wonderful way to better connect with my coworkers. This approach allows me to get to know my colleagues on a more personal level -- ultimately helping us collaborate more candidly and work together more productively.

Here's how we engage our remote team in video conferencing: - Initiate icebreakers or incorporate fun elements to kick-off meetings. - Encourage open dialogue. - Use breakout rooms for smaller group discussions. - Leverage features like polls and chat functions to ensure everyone's voice is heard. These transform monotonous meetings into harmonious collaborations and enrich the team's connection and productivity.

From my experience, whether you're speaking only to your team or if you're speaking with clients, there should always be someone responsible to recap what goals, objectives, and discussions were during the meeting. It's beneficial to establish a routine for post-meeting follow-ups. Timely summaries not only keep everyone aligned but also serve as a reference for future discussions. Encouraging team members to provide feedback on the meeting structure and content can foster a culture of continuous improvement. This feedback loop ensures meetings remain relevant and engaging, ultimately contributing to more effective and enjoyable collaboration on brand strategy projects.

In addition to sending action items after, I've found it beneficial to quickly go through a brief summary of action items, next steps, and anticipated timelines before concluding a call if many things were discussed. I find that this can help bring potential miscommunications or misunderstandings to light and mitigate them, which ultimately reduces the need for additional meetings and swirl in the future.

First question to ask yourself “Can I accomplish the goal without a meeting?” If no, I decide on what type of meeting I (we) need. Process meeting? Standup meeting? Idea sharing and building meeting? Problem solving meeting? Problem definition meeting? Start with the end in mind and expectations, tools, agenda, participants can all be aligned to what you are trying to accomplish.

I have to develop a team building strategy first. Making the team have a one-team spirit, then linking the team to concepts that clarify the success of the brand strategy means the success of the entire team. After that we must agree on a platform that suits all team members. _Providing communication tools, I mean electronic devices. _Determining days for regular meetings and extraordinary meetings in case of emergencies and challenges. _Distribution of tasks and responsibilities. _Coordinating the dialogue mechanism in the meeting, in order to ensure the feasibility of the meeting. _Surveying the opinions of team members to determine the extent of their satisfaction in order to ensure continuity of work.

Para hacer que las videollamadas sean más productivas, es clave tener una agenda clara y metas definidas previamente. Acotar el tiempo de la reunión y asignar roles específicos ayuda a mantener el rumbo. Promover la participación activa y el intercambio de ideas, además de usar herramientas colaborativas en línea, potencia la interacción. También, es importante asegurarse de estar en un entorno libre de distracciones y usar tecnología confiable para una experiencia fluida y efectiva para todos los participantes.

Consider time zone differences for a remote team, ensuring meeting times are fair to all. Also, be mindful of video conferencing fatigue and keep meetings concise and purposeful. Periodically have informal virtual meetups or 'no-agenda' calls to foster team bonding and reduce the formality of regular meetings.

Our team recently transitioned to what we call Level 10 Meetings (a concept coined by EOS). Each week we have the same agenda: 1. Bests (5 min) 2. Scorecard (5 min) - each person puts their data into a spreadsheet prior to the meeting so we can get an idea of the state of the company) 3. Rock Review (5 min) - we run through our “rocks” or goals from last week and either say “on task” “not started” or “behind schedule” 4. Headlines (5 min) - company news 5. To-Do List (5 min) 6. IDS (60 min) - the meat of the meeting. We spend 60 minutes discussing issues that we are facing and brainstorm to solve the problem. 7. Close (5 min) - each team member rates the meeting on scale of 1-10