Facilitating Virtual Meetings for Humans

A lot of us are developing "Resting Zoom Face" after facilitating or attending literally hours of back-to-back virtual meetings over the past few weeks. All this collective screen time can nourish collaboration and connectivity - or it can suck a person's life force. From my facilitator whiteboard to yours, here are some principles and tips for making your virtual gatherings more effective, engaging and life-giving.

The Gift and the challenge of virtual meetings

Just a few weeks ago, COVID-19 hurtled through the world and ushered in an unprecedented era of physical distancing. Like so many others, I found myself working in an entirely virtual environment, either leading or participating in hours of videoconferencing sessions every day. I've been teaching and working online for a few years now - but the sheer volume of virtual meetings is new.

Some of these sessions have been purely personal: visiting my parents, sharing tea or "quarantinis" with friends, attending live-streamed movement classes, grieving at a virtual 'wake' following the death of a beloved family member. Most relate to work: co-designing trainings, facilitating leadership trainings and strategy meetings for clients, and movement-level conversations with colleagues. It is a blessing to have paid work in this moment, and it is vitally important that people stay connected. I don't take either for granted.

But, as many of us are learning, it can also be weirdly exhausting to spend this much time in live virtual communication. Why? Sitting in one place for so long with more limited physical movement (and 'sitting is the new smoking', right?); eye-strain from staring at the screen for so long; the cognitive dissonance between having our minds, faces and bodies in different locations; the hard work of reading facial expressions in 2-D, compounded by delays and tech-induced 'cognitive lag'. Plus, in this anxiety-provoking period of self-isolation, most of my clients and friends tell me they are in back-to-back meetings, all day long, with barely a break - many of them all while trying to home-school young children at the same time.

Even at the best of times, millions of us face barriers to any kind of technically-mediated human connection. Virtual meetings only work well if and when participants have access to:

• Stable wifi;
• Functional equipment: computers, webcams, mics and decent headsets or speakers;
• Quiet work spaces relatively free from noise and other distractions;
• The skills, ability and confidence to navigate the technology

At the same time, virtual tools can provide unprecedented connections to other people in real time, over long distances. Many businesses and workers are learning first-hand how much connecting well online saves time, money, stress and the massive carbon emissions inherent to long-distance travel. Some may never want to 'go back' to the same levels of commuting and travel, even once it's safe to do so.

And meeting, planning and learning online it can be a wonderful equalizer. Several years ago, my online teaching coach, Mary Watt, explained to me that virtual learning and convening is the only way many people can connect and participate at all. She completed her own Master's degree in online education in this way. With two young children at home, she could not have done so otherwise. Virtual access, she said, is a justice issue. Bam! I was sold, and she helped me develop and teach my first online leadership course at Simon Fraser University.

Since then, as a facilitator, trainer and constant learner, I've been trying to figure out how to maximize the gifts and minimize the life-sucking aspects of meeting online. Virtual meetings can be hard! But the word "facilitate" derives from the Latin facilis: "to make easy". So,whether you're on the Zoom-train or using Google Meet, Skype, Webex, BlueJeans or Microsoft Teams, here some ideas for leading easy, productive and lively virtual meetings. 

Make it count

Clarify the 'why': Context is everything, and in this moment, almost every leader I know is in back-to-back meetings. All. Day. Long. (Come to think of it, this was true even before the pandemic.... ) And for all the reasons I mentioned earlier, virtual meetings are far more tiring than in-person meetings. So before sending out that calendar invite, get clear on your purpose and desired outcomes. Ask: do we really need to meet in real time? Or are there other 'offline' ways to achieve the same purpose with more ease and flexibility for our people? If the purpose is relationship building, brainstorming, or making decisions on a complicated issue, then likely meeting in real-time is the way to go. But always consider: what might happen separately, offline, to ensure our face-to-face time is as enlivening, interactive and juicy as possible? I use two principles:

Online, face-to-face: Maximize precious face-to-face time for anything where people can most usefully build off one anothers ideas in real-time. Examples:

·      relationship-building

·      building a learning community

·      emotional/physical sensing

·      collective sense-making or analysis

·      generative brainstorming

Offline, self-paced: Shift other activities to self-paced, a-synchronous platforms. This includes any information that can be shared and accessed flexibly by participants in their own time and at their own pace. Examples:

·      one-way information transfers (updates, lectures)

·      readings

·      pre-recorded videos

·      worksheets, and

·      surveys

Keep it short

Keep meetings to two hours, max. With breaks! Keep virtual meetings to a maximum of 2 hours. Some colleagues recommend even less - 45 minutes is ideal. Again, keep in mind that many people are in meetings all day long - not just yours. And never go more than 90 minutes without a break. If your meeting is 2 hours long, put a short break half-way through. Generally, strive for simplicity and spaciousness, with less content and protected time for interaction. If the meeting ends early, great! 

The 'conversion' myth.  Can you 'convert' an 8-hour planning session into an 8-hour virtual session? Please, don't even try. It won't work. And people will hate you. While the purpose and outcomes of any gathering might be the same, the process for accomplishing those online is (or should be) different. Again, think about what can be accomplished offline, through self-paced reading, writing and other 'pre-work', and what is essential to do together in real time. In this way, what would have been an 8 hour meeting in person might look like, say, a series of shorter virtual meetings over the course of a week, with 'asynchronous' reading, writing and other work taking place in between.

Structure inclusion

I've seen a ton of online meetings where some people are in-person (eg sitting around a conference table with a single camera), some call in, and some are on a videoconference platform from their own devices. In addition to gender, race and other forms of power, access to technology can create yet another form of 'insider-outsider' dynamics in a group, undermining that group's collective potential. 

Level the field: In virtual environments, access to equipment, bandwidth, skill, confidence, a quiet space, or agility at navigating tech - all of these matter when it comes to equitable participation. A few years ago Ryan Merkley, currently Chief of Staff at Wikimedia Foundation, advised me to always try to center those facing the greatest limits to participation in virtual meetings. If only one person cannot attend a meeting in person, rather than have them call in, have everyone meet virtually. If five people want to call in sitting side by side via a shared conference room, but one person has to call in via their individual monitor from another location - have everyone call in from their individual monitors. The one exception to this, I would suggest, is that for a virtual meeting, it is most dynamic to have as many people as possible using their camera at least some of the time, especially during any relationship-building moments. However, everyone should feel free to turn off their cameras periodically if they need to move around alot or step away (eg. to tend to a child).

Centre access for different abilities: Similarly, consider the range of abilities such as sight and hearing, and center those whose participation might be hindered by the platform. For example, if you know that even one participant is sight-impaired, then be sure to include visual descriptions of any images shared in the meeting (here's a great blog post on how to do this well). And for the hearing-impaired, use 'closed captioning' (platforms like Zoom have this feature), or send transcriptions or scripts for any presentations in advance. There are more practical tips in this article In some ways, virtual platforms can more easily accommodate a range of abilities than in-person meetings.

Basic facilitation skills still apply

Listening, reflecting and sensing: Active listening, including paraphrasing and reflecting the essence of what others say, feel and intend, is a core facilitation skill no matter what. In the tech-mediated environment of a videoconference, it can be even more tempting to hurtle through an agenda at speed. But it's often most helpful and productive to pause periodically and reflect back or respond to questions and comments verbally, in the chat or through a shared document, to really check in on the group's collective reflections and ideal pace.

Excellent questions: Thoughtful questions always matter for good dialogue. In the virtual context, there can be alot of moving pieces and potential for cognitive drag. Good questions can provide "helpful constraints" to that complexity, helping distill and focus the conversation. They can give some structure to breakout groups, focus to the chat or collaborative inputs to a shared virtual document or whiteboard. Questions can also constrain dialogue in unhelpful ways, due to the dynamics of power, rank, dominant cultural frameworks and both implicit and explicit biases - so must be handled with care and forethought.

Track multiple threads: Discussions can get chaotic, with multiple threads emerging, especially in a virtual environment where people may be alternating between participating in the large group and actively using the chat. Be sure to help the group track and follow one or two discussion threads at a time before bouncing over to new topics, to reduce frustration and overwhelm. Again, always do so being mindful of power dynamics and biases - your own and others' - when curating a conversation in this way.

Beyond 'talking heads': Most great meetings are designed with a range of options for receiving information and engaging in different ways, tailored to a range of learning and communication styles. Virtual meetings can make it even easier, without the use of projectors, giant speakers or a crew of technicians. Even a short presentation can be easily augmented with excellent visuals, well-designed slides with simple instructions (in lieu of flipcharts), short video clips or helpful info-graphics, all shared through 'screen-share' or sent ahead of time. As a facilitator, work with any presenters in advance to make sure they are on track to do this extra work of thoughtfully distilling and augmenting their offerings with appropriate visuals.

And the next speaker is... Most facilitators avoid calling on specific individuals to speak in a large in-person group setting. We're usually taught to invite people to self-select when they're ready and willing to contribute. But it's different in a virtual meeting. On a screen with a gallery of other participants (some with cameras turned off), it's harder to see and read body language for a clear opening to speak, and tech-induced lags make it hard to avoid interrupting others. Plus, not everyone sees the same sequence of people in their gallery views, so won't have the same idea of 'who's next' in a round or sequence. As a facilitator, there's a fine balance between heavy-handed direction, and time-sucking uncertainty. To keep things moving, facilitators have a few options, including: 

·      Facilitator decides: Go ahead and call on specific people to speak, based on whom the facilitator sees as 'next' in their own gallery view'. This is fastest, and potentially most equitable - but it is also the most directive, so use with care.

·      Create a 'virtual circle': Create and share a visual or graphic where each person's name (even a thumbnail of their faces) is in a circle that everyone can see, so there is a shared sense of 'who's next' when speaking in a 'round', one at a time. You can start in different places each round, and reverse the order occasionally, for variety. This does require some pre-work and may require last-minute editing if people arrive late, drop off early or don't show. I'm not aware of any app yet that creates this automatically, but wouldn't that be useful?!

·      Participants self-select: allow folks to self select their own order using a "raise hand" feature (Zoom and other platforms have this) or even using a word in the chat. Their names will be listed on a first-come, first-served basis, but those who are quickest at typing or most agile with the tech or most confident (again, this may be connected to their relative social rank and power) will always end up going first, so use with caution.

·      Participants decide: Ask each speaker to pick the next speaker. Like the 'raised hands' or virtual circle, this de-centers the facilitator and so is more democratic. Be cautious about using it too often, especially in groups of more than 10 people, as it does take a bit longer and risks people getting left out or forgotten if the whole group isn't tracking well. Also, the most popular folks may tend to get chosen first, and again, issues of bias, power or rank in a group may reflect the order.  

Make it super-interactive

If you don't want people zoning out and multi-tasking on 5 other open tabs during the meeting, here are the Big Three principles:

1. Make the meeting count (be clear you need to meet at all);

2. Keep it short, with breaks (see above); and most importantly

3. Keep it interactive. Avoid having anyone speak for more than 5-10 minutes without some opportunity for interaction. Here's how:

Use breakouts: The math says that in any group larger than 8-10, we'll only hear from a few people during a relatively short meeting. Breakout groups allow everyone to have a voice, dig a little deeper into the topic and potentially build relationships. Zoom, Bluejeans, Webex and some other platforms make it really easy to create quick breakout groups. More tips:

·      Frequency: If there are more than 8 participants, I usually aim for at least one group of 2-5 people during a 60-minute meeting. 

·      Size matters: for larger gatherings of 20+ people, where it's easier to be anonymous, I aim for at least four participants per group, so that if one or even two members drop off, there are still at least two people left to have a conversation. 

·      Duration: I've found online breakouts most effective if they're about 10 - 20 minutes long, with at least 5 minutes per person.

·      Instructions: Support the groups with a strong question or clear instructions. Make it easy: give the instructions both verbally and in writing, through the chat and re-iterated in a broadcast message to all groups once they've started, if your platform allows.

Assigning breakout group membership: Decide beforehand how you want to assign group membership. In Zoom, there's an option to have the program do it for you randomly, once you specify the number of people per group. Sometimes it's better to manually assign specific groups, taking into account hierarchy (eg. supervisors with their direct reports), diversity (eg. race; gender; specific roles or sectors) or other differences. If you know exactly who's attending ahead of time, and want to ensure everyone gets a chance to breakout with everyone else through a series of several breakouts, Tournament Scheduler is a free online tool that does the work in seconds.

Raising hands: Rather than interrupting or confidently 'jumping in' to a larger conversations, most people raise their hands to be added to a speaker's list. Most virtual platforms offer this feature as well (or folks can just raise their hands in sight of the camera and hope they're seen). Either way, there's an art to 'curating' who speaks and how often, and it gets trickier with groups of more than 20 people. As always, consider power dynamics, to ensure that participant 'airtime' is shared equitably, and be aware of your own biases in doing so.

Text-based dialogue: most platforms have a chat function. If not, you could use external platforms like Slack (most of my clients already use this), or any real-time shared virtual document, like a shared googledoc. That way, people can add comments or respond to the main discussion throughout - ultra democratic, if everyone has access. For large groups, and/or those with a fast-paced culture, written dialogue can be either in response to or parallel to the verbal discussion, and it can move really quickly. If you have a co-facilitator, one person can track the chat or shared document and call out themes, specific comments or questions or raised hands', while the other facilitates the main discussion (see the 'teamwork' section below).

Chat for 'quick reads: Most platforms have a built-in chat function, where people can share their reactions, insights and questions related to the topic. The chat is also great for quick, brief inputs, especially handy for surveying larger groups quickly and easily. For example, have people type in quick one-word 'feelings', reactions, preferences or numbers (eg. "on a scale of 1-10, how do you feel about X?").

Virtual brainstorms: Invite participants to offer and bounce off one another's ideas on a shared, cloud-based document that allows online collaboration in real time. This can be an incredibly useful and participatory way to gather insights and create shared meaning, but only if you have the right software and everyone is trained and agile with the tech. There are lots of options, such as: Slack; Google docs; Microsoft Sharepoint Word docs; or a virtual concept map or whiteboard such as "Mural". Choose the option that meets the group where they already are - avoid asking them to sign up for yet another app or platform if they are not already using it. And keep in mind that some organizations have strict security and privacy policies that don't allow them to access some platforms. Many Canadian and European companies cannot use any platform where the data servers are housed in the US, for example. Once you've settled on an appropriate platform, make sure questions, instructions or headings are clear, so people know where to share their ideas. Send participants a shareable link ahead of time, plus you can re-post the link in the chat feature for convenience.

Polling: Online polls are really useful for quickly and democratically surveying top-of-mind views, attitudes and preferences, especially for groups of 20 or more. Many virtual platforms have built-in polling functions (eg. GoToMeeting, Zoom, Google Meet or Hangouts, Webex or Skype for Business). There are lots of external options, too (eg. SurveyMonkey, PollEverywhere). Set these up ahead of time, and have the link ready to post in the calendar invite or meeting invitation, plus the chat or shared document in real time.

Invite body, mind and soul

Just because all we see of one another is usually tiny heads and shoulders, doesn't mean we cannot acknowledge and engage a fuller range of our bodies, emotions, and imaginations. Keep meetings engaging with dynamic activities that invite participants to bring their full selves to the gathering. Here are some examples:

Inspiration object: Before the meeting, consider asking people to bring an object, or use an image, that inspires them and connects them to their own purpose and/or the purpose of the meeting. Some people use background images (with Zoom people can set 'virtual backgrounds', such as images of nature, beautiful architecture, scenes from a favourite film, artwork or anything that inspires them); others may bring a 'leadership object' that inspires them (again, art, nature, a book, picture of an influential leader) to place near their laptop where they can see it throughout the meeting.

Physical movement: Physical movement will help synchronize the group, raise energy, increase wellbeing, and improve creativity. Invite participants to loosen shoulders, stretch, step away from their cameras, or lead their own 'energizers' for fun, connectivity, and to raise energy. No, people, it isn't 'woo-woo' to add a little movement into a meeting - it's science! Our bodies weren't meant to sit so long. Even the Centre for Disease Control offers a list of 'airplane' exercises people can do at their desks on pages 8-9 of this workplace activity guide; many of these could be used in an online meeting.

Guided visualizations: A visualization exercise can help people tap into their brains' ability to access into less consciously-available wisdom, identify patterns, surface deeper insights, and leap beyond incremental thinking to find 'out-of-the-box' solutions. Visualizations can also help a group synchronize, as they have both individual and collective experiences. These don't work for everyone, which is fine (nothing works for everyone), but even for those who don't easily picture images in their minds, the reflective moment is usually helpful. Here are tips for using guided visualization to help a group develop a common vision, for example.

Story sharing: Research shows that even brief stories, when engaging scent, imagery, and emotions, increase rapport, as both the listener's and speaker's brains 'synchronise'. When I describe waking up to the smell of coffee wafting up from the kitchen, in that brief moment the part of my brain responsible for detecting scent 'lights up' - and so does the listener's. In that moment, we are even more connected. Story-telling also releases oxytocin levels, increasing feelings of trust. Small groups are a wonderful opportunity to share stories, with a clear prompt (eg. "tell the story of a moment when") as part of a relationship-building or sense-making exercise in a virtual meeting.

Start strong

There is an arc to any gathering, a beginning, middle and end that starts with 'arriving'. Virtual meetings lend themselves to hyper-distractibility and multi-tasking, all of which deplete presence, creativity and the potential for full collaboration. Well-structured beginnings can help people fully arrive, physically, cognitively and emotionally, and are even more important in a virtual gathering. Beginnings should be structured with an eye toward the time you have, the number of participants, the group's 'culture' and whether the meeting is a gathering of strangers or an intact circle of colleagues. Here are some ideas for starting off well:

Land acknowledgement: It is an increasingly common practice to start meetings with a respectful acknowledgement of the traditional Indigenous territory one is on, and a beautiful way to begin a gathering with a sense of the larger context. One veteran facilitator I know, Natasha Aruliah, often shows a map locating her and/or the group at the very beginning of a gathering. For anyone leading or joining a meeting in North or South America, Australia, New Zealand or parts of Europe, Native-Land.Ca is an excellent source for identifying the traditional Indigenous territories one is on. This can then be shared in the introductions, visually, verbally or in writing through the chat.

Arrival practices: Before jumping in to the content, help the group find other ways of "arriving" together. Ask everyone to be sure to close all other tabs, eliminate other distractions if possible, and strive to be fully present. Then:

·      Take a moment or two to sit together in silence with a brief mindfulness exercise

·      Take one or two deep, slow breaths together

·      Take some time to carefully look at the other faces on the screen, to really see one another.

Introductions: If this is a new group that's expected to work together in some way, and most people don't know one another, then introductions are essential. But in a 2 hour meeting, introductions could end up taking 20-30% of the time. I've seen it happen. Alot. Rigidly timing people can feel overly dictatorial, but invariably, at least a few people will go over time without gentle prompts. In a group of 20 people, each person taking 2 minutes to share a story that says something about who they are, what inspires them, what they offer or what they hope for will easily amount to nearly 45 minutes. That might be perfect for the intended outcomes of that meeting. However, if the meeting is a one-off with some other purpose, then you might want to use the chat or a shared virtual document for introductions, circulate bios in advance, or both.

Get participant voices in early: For smaller groups (eg. less than 20), it may be possible to hear a brief word from each person. For larger groups, the chat or some sort of shared virtual document is an easy way to have people share a word or two as their virtual check-in. Here are some sample prompts:

·      Name, pronouns, possibly role/organization

·      Where my feet touch the ground today

·      What I see when I look out the nearest window

·      A word describing how I'm feeling; my current state of being

·      What I hope for, and what I offer, today

Invite collaborative note-taking

One of the democratic gifts of virtual meetings is the ease with which all participants can contribute to the minutes of the meeting in real time, rather than a single note-taker. At the very least, it can be helpful for people to see notes on action items or decisions as they are recorded, just the way they would in an in-person meeting where these are often captured on a flipchart that everyone can see. Either way, be clear about how ideas and decisions will be captured. Here are just a few options for shared virtual documentation:

·      A Google doc or Microsoft Word online document for real-time contributions and editing

·      Zoom chat: if people are using the chat, the contents can be saved and shared out immediately after the meeting by the organizer

·      A virtual whiteboard: Zoom has its own, and there are other free apps, like Mural though I haven't yet found one most participants are already adept at using for real-time contributions, without a bit of a learning curve

·      Slack: many groups are already using Slack, so this can be an easy way of 'meeting people where they're at'

·      Graphic recording: go visual! I've been part of a few virtual gatherings where a graphic recorder beautifully captures the key ideas, walks the group through at the end, and even offers the image as a PDF 'take-away' following the meeting

·      Email: consider sharing any slides, tips etc. afterwards as an attachment or with a link to the shared document, slides or handouts

·      Word clouds: when you work with a partner, one person can scan for key words in a chat or shared document and generate a "word cloud" to share back later through a screen share. AnimaLeadership did this on a virtual training session recently and it provided a lovely little reflection of 'feeling words' shared by participants. There are several free programs that do this, like wordart.com, wordclouds.com and wordle.

·      Recording: assuming participants and presenters have agreed to this in advance, it may be helpful to record and share video of a meeting as another form of documentation for participants, or for those who were unable to attend

Don't do it alone

Teamwork is key: It is always a gift to have more than one facilitator, especially when the facilitators have diverse kinds of lived experience, expertise, perspectives and other forms of difference. With virtual meetings, it is even more important to have more than one person on the facilitation team to support the meeting in a range of ways, including:

·      Waiting room: allowing participants entry to the Zoom meeting via the waiting room, including late-comers once the meeting has started

·      Troubleshooting tech challenges participants may experience before and during the meeting, and ensuring they are ready to log on with the required hardware, software, bandwidth and so on; this may mean tracking email, phone and text for urgent requests

·      Tracking the various communication channels in the meeting, including 'raised hands', and comments or questions emerging in the chat or shared virtual document, and conveying these to the group and/or the co-facilitators

·      Breakouts: initiating breakouts, monitoring or participating in breakout groups if appropriate, and sending broadcast message to the breakouts to offer additional instructions, remind them of remaining time and bring them back to the main discussion

·      Muting: identifying and muting (or removing) loud, uninvited or distracting participants. Many hosts automatically mute all participants upon entry until the meeting has begun

·      Screen shares: supporting screen shares for slides or other visuals

·      Facilitation: alternating facilitation for the benefit of both participants and co-facilitators

Stay safe

Avoid Zoom-bombing: If you're using Zoom, there are lots of resources now for how to prevent "Zoom Bombing" (rude or abusive intrusions into a meeting by uninvited guests), but the essentials are these:

·      Secret link: don't post the meeting link on social media or other public places

·      Password: turn on the password requirement, and send passwords only to invited guests, often right before the meeting

·      Waiting rooms: use the "waiting room" function to approve guests before they can join the meeting

·      Screen sharing: set host controls to allow only the host, or a select few, to share their screens

Communicate in advance

The confirmation email: It seems like a small thing, but solid communication before an online meeting can make a world of difference. Here are a few tips for smooth sailing:

·      Pre-testing: ensure all participants are 'tech-ready' based on the platform you'll be using. At a minimum, they'll need to check their systems (eg. " If you have not used Zoom before, you can go to zoom.us/test to make sure your hardware is set up correctly"). Remind even veteran users of the platform to make sure they have the latest software updates, and provide a convenient link.

·      Basic instructions: in your invitation email, it can be helpful to offer a few basic tips on navigating through the platform: how to mute, how to navigate between 'speaker view' and 'gallery view' (if offered), how to raise hands, use the chat, and so on. Most platforms set out the basics for new users; include that link. I find this article great for beginner Zoom users, including hosts. And this article covers the basics but also includes useful including troubleshooting tips if the camera doesn't work, bandwidth is iffy, etc.

·      Early arrival: Ask people to log in 5-10 minute early to ensure all systems are a go, then have some one standing by for support if needed. The larger and/or newer the group, the more important this early log-in request is

The last-minute reminder: I've rarely been in a virtual meeting where at least one person isn't scrambling for the link and password at the very last minute. Sometimes that person is me... Given how many virtual meetings people are in now, it is both kind and efficient to re-send a reminder a few hours before the meeting begins that includes all key information in one place, including:

·      The link: Repeat the meeting time (suggest logging in 5-10 minutes early), link, and password (highlight this at the top!)

·      Waiting room: A reminder that they'll be placed in a virtual waiting room until the hosts starts the session (for Zoom calls)

·      Group norms: a reminder of any group agreements (see below)

·      Documentation: a link to any virtual document, whiteboard, or other shared document for real-time collaboration in the meeting

·      Troubleshooting support: whom to contact if they run into technical difficulties

·      Privacy: Let folks know whether the meeting will be recorded, and whether the chat will be saved. Zoom removed its heinous "attention tracking" feature, but other platforms like Webex still have one; if so, let your participants know in advance

·      POP: a reminder of the Purpose, Outcome and Process (especially the agenda) for the meeting 

Group agreements: Most facilitators have a few preferred group agreements, such as sharing airtime, striving for dialogue vs. debate, staying present, etc. Here are a few additional ideas for recommended behaviours in virtual meetings, which can be sent out in advance of the meeting, and/or reviewed at the beginning for longer meetings:

·      Presence: ask people to stay present and accountable, and avoid multi-tasking. Ask that they close all tabs, tune out other distractions, and focus on the meeting itself as much as they can. Then honour that accountability by ensuring the meeting counts, that it's interactive, and that it's short, with appropriate breaks. Paradoxically, keep in mind that in this pandemic moment, thousands of parents are working at home while home-schooling young children - so be prepared to welcome the little ones if and when they pop onto the screen

·      Movement: moving around is good and necessary to stay healthy when sitting and facing a screen. However, large movements are amplified on a screen, and can be distracting. Ask participants to stop their cameras if they need to get up, talk to someone in the room with them, yell at the dog and so on

·      Muting: if there are more than 10 people, ask everyone to mute when they aren't speaking. Hosts can usually do this themselves with the push of a button. For smaller groups, some background sound can feel more intimate and human, but can accumulate into a distracting cacophony with more than a few people. If some participants are new to virtual or conference call meetings, ask them to please practice using the 'mute' feature in advance. (Who was it, anyway, that flushed their toilet during their first virtual City Council meeting? That was awesome!)

·      Sharing airtime: ask participants to signal their desire to speak to the current topic (or flag a new one) using any "raised hands" feature, the chat or another behaviour to signal 'hands-up'. One friend of mine leads a digital team that meets online regularly. They've agreed to touch the side of their noses as a signal they want to speak. Seeing this, their team-mates make extra effort to make space and ensure they get their turn 

And... on to the next meeting!

In some ways, I've never felt so connected to such a breadth of friends, family members and colleagues over the past few weeks of meeting "all-virtually, all-the-time". Virtual meetings cannot replace the overt and subtle ways people connect in person as deeply social animals. But connecting through technology can provide unprecedented access to one another in the most democratic ways. We can reduce isolation, support collaboration across geographic distance, and build on one anothers ideas in the pursuit of shared goals. With some care, forethought and attention, we can design and lead tech-mediated meetings that support fully human creativity, productivity and alignment.