Covid-19 accelerated an already strong trend for more digital meetings. Major change is that we are using video rather than just telephones. The usage has exploded, not least in the Global Mobility industry and this is in part due to increasingly decentralized or distributed teams, global cooperation and climate considerations in regards to business travel.
All companies are prepared, and many have had to practice on emergencies of a different nature such as fire, floods, threats of terrorism and so on and of course Remote Work has been on the rise. The best way, so far, is to replace the in person meetings are the video conference calls.
How many of you have been at client meetings and walked around their entire offices looking for a conference room and inevitably someone has to get out before th emeeting is completed, because they really needed more time. If you have experienced this you have also probably had the solution to replace the conference room with a Video conference.
There are many things that are well suited for video conference calls. Education is ideal, project update meets, our trade organization has members all over the country and VC is ideal.
When many companies are implementing Remote first as the main way employees work in the organization, video conferencing skills will become essential.
When setting up meetings it’s ideal to ask yourself a few questions first;
- What kind of meeting is this? Strategy, updates, sharing information, or social?
- How long will it take? Can it be shorter? IKEA has shortened all their meetings – you can imagine the savings!
- Always ask at the end of the meeting – what did we achieve during this meeting?
- Start with the end by stating what should be achieved during the meeting.
Many companies have been, like IKEA, experimenting to increase the outcome with their meetings. IKEA also tried standup meetings, we have too and it definitely keeps everyone brief. Volvo has standardized meetings and employees are trained to follow the protocol.
Since, we are having so many video conference calls we have experimented and put together a guide that you can download.
The main themes are;
- Set up and a general etiquette
- Equipment for good meetings
- Strategies for a productive work meeting
- Strategies to look great (this is a good one)
Running teams remotely isn’t easy and one of the best things I ever did was to have a Remote Teams Operations Manager. He was a life saver and he was also knowledgeable on the technical aspects of our project and could translate my vision into actions. He was the liaison I needed to be able to work with the marketing team in a time zone nine hours away. It can take a few years to craft a strategy, and you things can fall apart anyway, but it will contribute a great deal to the speed and agility of the company.
One of the best things with remote teams was that every morning was a gift, since I received the work that had been done when I was sleeping.
Nimmersion is sharing our experiences and we have developed a Remote Work program to support HR and leadership with this new situation. Please reach out to request more information.
