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Breakthrough the constraints of virtual meetings


As a strategic facilitator for C-suites, I just love creating in-person experiences that build trust, break down human barriers, harvest the wisdom and insights of the collective, create generative dialogues, and foster understanding and connections – in service of propelling teams and organizations forward.

When COVID hit, I wondered if I was able to be as effective with what I do without being in the same room with my clients. After all, my work straddles between the human and business side of change and transformation. How can I possibly be as effective without having in person contact? I had many doubts and questions: · How do I spark the human connections virtually? · How do I keep people actively engaged through a 2D digital medium? · How can we be as productive without the benefits of in person workshops and discussions? I feared that the people element will forever be lost in the Zoom world (The sentimental part of me really took the front seat!)

However, just like any constraints, they spark innovations that one can never predict. Over the course of last year, I’ve learned and adapted the art of facilitation in the digital medium. I had to throw out my old bag of tricks and bring in new ones. Experiment with new ways of doing things – some worked well and some failed miserably.

A true testament: A recent annual strategic planning “offsite” with an anchor client provides an interesting case study. What normally would have taken 30 people three days away from the office and tens of thousands of dollars spent at a fancy resort, we had a total of eight hours over the course of two half-days.

The verdict? According to the client, it was “the best offsite yet.” We accomplished just as much, if not more, together.


How did we do it? I want to share some best practices so that we can all continue to challenge our own assumptions about what is possible.

Key Challenges:

  • Time: One of the key challenges with virtual meetings is the attention span of the participants. When a three-day offsite is shrunken in to 8 hours, efficient and effective meeting design is critical to ensure the highest and best use of every minute together.

  • Engagement: Another key challenge, particularly around aligning around a new direction, is that people need the time and space to wrestle with the content – really digging in, inquiring, challenging-- so that they can surface with understanding and buy-in on the other end. Traditional presentation-based meetings do not engender true alignment.

  • Human Connections: In the virtual world, we don’t have the benefit of social dinners or team building activities prior to break the ice. The human dimensions need to be created intentionally, during the meeting.

Prior to the “Offsite”: Preparation and context setting are secret weapons to a productive offsite. Often times, the success of a meeting has already been determined when the participants “walk” into the meeting. You want to make sure they are prepared, ready for, and know what to expect ahead of time.

Mini brainstorming workshops prior to the real “offsite”: We had mini brainstorming workshops with small groups of attendees to assess where they are. These were well-designed 60-90 min sessions that are generative and people are encouraged to begin by casting a wide net (divergent thinking) of potential possibilities, co-creating the solution set, and then harvesting convergent ideas.

One-on-one coaching: Touching base with individual participants and providing coaching as needed prior to the offsite are critical ways to build rapport, ensure consistency in understanding, and challenge them to think bigger, bolder (in a safe way).

During the “Offsite”:

Take first action within the first 10 minutes: Just like in-person sessions, you want to get everyone's voices in the room as quickly as possible. To do that, I often encourage participants to take actions as quickly as possible. Highlighting multiple ways to get people’s voices heard is really important – whether that is speaking up verbally, utilizing hand-waiving icon, typing in the chat box, etc. Training the participants upfront can help create a safe container for participation.

IDEA: One of my favorite way of getting everyone's voices in the room is with this opening question: “Who determines the success of this meeting?” If it is a large group, I would ask people to type in their responses in chat. As responses come in, I really take the time to acknowledge each of them verbally. This is an efficient way to begin to create a safe space for co-creation and personal accountability.

Utilize multi-media engagement tools: It’s important to create an experience that appeals t all types of learners -- whether if it is visual, audio, or kinesthetic. Some examples of the artifacts include:

  • Video montage that brings together photos and a catchy song that jointly delivers a unified message.

  • Visual slides with organizing framework to guide the discussions.

  • Offline worksheets for journaling and note taking.

  • Collaboration tools such as Mural and Miro can be very helpful if you want participants to contribute to ideas simultaneously under a customized organizing framework.

TIP: I host my meetings from two computers. One is the “whiteboard” that captures the dialogue visually and tracks the collective progress as we go. The other is for visual participation/facilitation.

TIP2: At our meeting, each participant received a personalized whiteboard that they can physically “jot” down their ideas visually and share out when prompted. This also helps create the connections between the physical world and the virtual world (see below).

Inject elements of delight + create a shared physical reality: We had a “Mystery Box” with individual envelopes for the participants to reveal when prompted. Each of the envelopes contained a fun surprise that helped create levity and connection. We also had plenty of energy snacks– trust me, there is nothing worse than hungry participants ;) There is something very special about having a shared element in each of our respective physical reality to complement the shared virtual experience.

Visualize and harvest discussions just in time As time is precious, so are insights. There are two types of capturing that is worthwhile mention and both are important. 1) verbatim – designed to acknowledge the participants for their contributions. 2) synthesis – discerning key ideas / insights and harvesting the collective wisdom.

TIP: To continue to keep the virtual discussions alive, I often provide visual recap between the segments/days of the meeting, whether if it is via visual scribe, memorable quotes and images, or beyond. Visuals and quotes are great ways to capture the essence of the dialogues in a very condense way.

Breakout groups As many have pointed out, breakout groups are essential to help people engage with the topic. Pairs enable intimate sharing. Small groups of 3-6 people encourage diverse thoughts. Large group interactions promote a shared experience. Utilize these grouping thoughtfully can help further impact and effectiveness.

After the Offsite: Leverage existing mechanisms to activate ideas and intentions As every minute counts, I often think about what are the meaningful next steps to help the group continue with their progress and make things more actionable?

TIP: Take advantage of existing processes and meetings that are already in place and make the action items from the offsite part of their agenda.

Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of tight box is invent your way out.” -- Jeff Bezos.

By operating in a forced constraint of the virtual world, we may actually be able to enhance the experience, effectiveness, and productivity in ways that we had not imagined before. I challenge you to share your own discoveries!



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