Three "Magic Tricks" to make online meetings engaging (& a bit of neuroscience to explain why)

#SuddenlyOnline ? Not me. Our org's been distributed for 20 years. After countless hours of online meetings, here are three simple powerful reminders that will make your meetings & webinars MUCH more powerful.

ONE: Start Real

Online meetings are automatically more boring than in-person meetings. The neuroscience is intriguing, basically our social brains are not highly activated by digital communication -- there's less of our brain turned on. Imagine you're trying to sip a smoothie through a thin straw. If you want the same impact, you're going to need some added power.

To build emotional connection through that thin straw, focus hard on heart to heart. For example, before starting, give yourself a moment to feel grateful for the people in the virtual room. Then look through the camera and tell them.

When you come into your Zoom meeting, is there a big slide and a tiny video to watch? Or, can you actually see one another?

Are you asking questions that matter?

TWO: Activate Early & Often

It's like training a puppy. Right from the start, create the right expectation that this is something we're in together. Not a time to scroll twitter while pretending to meet. How?

There's almost always a couple minutes of pre-meeting. That's a great time for an engaging question. Then, when it starts, is there a lot of blah blah, or do you jump into something important?

Within the first five minutes, ask a question -- eg, "in the chat, everyone share one success from your day so far..." or even, "I'd like everyone to put one word of what you'd like out of this meeting."

Make a list of attendees on a bit of paper (so old fashioned) and make a tick mark by each name when they talk. Then call on people. There's that classic cartoon where two people are trying to go into a room at same time... when we're in person, we get little cues to take turns. Online we mightn't see those cues in real-time, and so there's frequently silences or multiple people talking over on another.

Calling on people also creates an expectation that everyone needs to pay attention, and creates an opportunity to increase equity (eg inviting people with less positional or cultural power to speak). Be careful though: Some people are "internal processors" and need a bit more time. So try this: Think of someone who is generally quick to answer, let's say it's Carol. You can say, "I'd like a comment from Carol, then Bob, then Jo." This gives Bob and Jo a moment to collect their thoughts.

THREE: Keep the Ball Moving

Our brain's attention center (hippocampus) is stimulated by novelty and emotion. When one voice is going on for a long time, it just becomes noise and our brains go into snooze mode.

Ask SHORT questions. "Tell us your goal and three key action steps and one metrics for success for each" No! After the 3rd person goes through this litany... kill me now.

Change the setup. Don't stay in the same "mode" for more than 10 minutes. EG if one person is sharing slides, after a few minutes, pause, go into breakout rooms, and ask each group to come back with 1 key point or 1 key question. Other "modes" you can use:

• Use a whiteboard.
• Show a cartoon.
• Show a video (tip: on Zoom, make sure you checkmark the little box to share computer audio)
• Ask everyone to stand up and walk around in their space for 2 minutes and come back with a new idea.
• Ask everyone to take a paper and pen and draw a doodle...
• Rather than a long meeting, break it in parts. For example, start. Then send everyone go do some research or learning and come back together and share.

Six Seconds, the global nonprofit I help lead, is working toward EVERYONE having the support to grow and practice emotional intelligence. To do so, we care a lot about current neuroscience and understanding how the brain learns. We also work hard to make our learning accessible in many places, and that's why we do so many virtual classes. If that's appealing to you, come join one of our livestream experiences or virtual classes and experience how it works!