Designing virtual meetings: The best tips for video conferences!

Studies have long proven what we all suspect: Virtual meetings are often far too unproductive. Leading meeting-scientist Steven G. Rogelberg even classifies 50 percent of the time spent in video conferences as pure waste. How can you avoid unnecessary or unproductive meetings in your team?

Content of the article:
• When is a virtual meeting useful - and when is it not?
• How do video conferences really become productive?
• How do I prepare for an online meeting?
• And after the meeting?
• Conclusion: Making virtual meetings productive – it's easy with a few tips!

When is a virtual meeting useful - and when is it not?

Virtual meetings are particularly important for regionally dispersed teams in order to stay in touch in person during digital collaboration. When organizing video conferences, the following golden rule applies to you as a team leader:

Only invite team members to virtual meetings when it really makes sense. This will help you avoid unnecessary video conference participation and wasting time. If your team knows that the video call is only about important topics that really concern them, they will be more motivated and focused.

So when can you do without virtual meetings?

• If you can also make decisions with your team more easily, e. g. with the survey tool in Stackfield. Incidentally, you can also add additional answer options.
• When brainstorming is also possible on a digital whiteboard.
• When you can share information as a text message in a communication tool like Stackfield.
• When your team can use thread-based discussions in the discussion area of your communication tool.

Incidentally, it is also okay to cancel virtual conferences that have already been scheduled. If no milestone has been reached in the project or all current issues have already been clarified, the following applies: No reason – no video conference.

How do video conferences really become productive?

With a few simple strategies and tips, virtual meetings can be organized efficiently and productively:

1. Establish clear rules for video conferences and communicate them: These include sticking to requests to speak or taking a break from smartphones and emails.
2. Define the roles (Admin/User/Guest/External) and the corresponding authorizations in advance.
3. Determine time boxes for the individual items on the agenda. Make sure that the time blocks are sufficient to achieve a result for the respective topic.
4. Use a question memory: If questions, new ideas or discussions arise during the meeting, collect them on a whiteboard, for example. This way, the contributions are not lost and you can pick them up at a later date.
5. Limit the number of participants to the minimum: Who really needs to attend the meeting and which people can also be informed afterwards? If the video conference results in to-dos for a non-participant, for example, you can simply create a task for them in Stackfield.
6. Document all important decisions so that all team members have access to them. In Stackfield, for example, you can use pages for this.

How do I prepare for an online meeting?

Important preparation hints for you as a moderator are:

• Announce the meeting: Send an invitation to all participants punctually. Clearly state the date, time and expected duration. Also ask them to confirm their attendance.
• Provide an agenda: Provide the participants with an agenda in good time – for example via the calendar module in Stackfield: With a logical structure, you ensure an organized meeting. If the participants know in advance what the topics are, they can prepare well.
• Technology check: To ensure that the video conference runs smoothly, test in advance how you can share documents, give presentations or use the online whiteboard. This will help you avoid unnecessary breaks in virtual meetings.

Whether as a moderator or as a participant – the right preparation is essential in a video conference.

How do you prepare for virtual conferences as a participant?

• Functioning technical equipment & video conferencing tool: Where can you find the raise hand function in Stackfield, for example? How do you use the chat function and how can you mute yourself? Are microphone, camera and screen enabled? Otherwise, of course, you should follow all the basics from the video conferencing etiquette.
• Avoid distractions: To do this, close other programs and deactivate notifications.
• Read the agenda: If you have familiarized yourself with the agenda beforehand, you will be knowledgeable in the topic prior to the virtual meeting and can contribute to the discussion with well-founded contributions.

And after the meeting?

With a targeted follow-up, you can ensure that the content of a productive online meeting is not immediately lost again.

Among other things, all participants should know afterwards:

• what the desired results are and what next steps are necessary to achieve them.
• who is responsible for which tasks and by when they have to be completed.
• when the exchange on a topic will be continued.

In Stackfield, you can also do all the follow-up work directly on the collaboration platform: Create or adjust the project schedule in the Gantt chart. Create new tasks in the Kanban board and assign them to the responsible team members. Make a note of the date for the next meeting in the calendar.

Conclusion: Making virtual meetings productive – it's easy with a few tips!

Video conferences can be significantly shortened through good preparation and efficient organization. Very often, the clear and topic-related communication in a collaboration tool such as Stackfield even makes virtual meetings superfluous. The all-in-one platform enables direct communication without wasting time via various channels such as chats, whiteboards or document management.