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3 STEPS TO READ THE ROOM WHEN LEADING VIRTUAL MEETINGS

Reading time: about 6 min

One of the wonderful things about humans is our ability to perceive each other’s
emotional and mental states based on physical indicators. We do it without even
realizing what is happening. Imagine if you were physically present in a meeting
and someone mentioned it was your co-worker’s birthday: suddenly, the mood
changes, and even if no one says anything, everyone is a bit happier. That
ability to “read the room”—or perceive others’ feelings—is an invaluable skill.
But reading the room is much more difficult when you’re not physically present
and able to better read body language and social cues. 

As more companies move toward hybrid work models, finding ways to read a virtual
room is becoming very important. To combat Zoom fatigue, facilitators need to
pay attention to how participants are responding and create more productive
meetings where everyone feels like they can collaborate and be a real part of
the team vision.

That’s why we’ll teach you how to increase your awareness of your team members’
needs, build a better connection with those in attendance, and conduct a
meaningful debrief—even if you’re physically far apart.


STARTING WELL

In order to establish trust and a space for collaboration and creativity, it’s
important that your meeting has a good foundation. Here are two quick steps for
starting right:

 1. Connect with yourself - A quick breathing exercise or meditation is ideal
    for this. Try closing your eyes and taking four deep breaths in and four
    deep breaths out. Be present by focusing on the space around you and on your
    immediate senses.
 2. Create a connection with others - You’ve likely noticed that your co-workers
    are eager to chat, since they may not be getting traditional social
    interaction. Take some time to bond! You could:
    * Ask one of life’s important questions
      * Would you rather be a vampire or a werewolf? Why?
      * Are you team Star Wars or Star Trek?
      * Which Hogwarts house are you? (If your team members don’t know which
        house they are, this is unacceptable and must be immediately remedied by
        doing a virtual sorting hat.)
      * If you had $5,000 to spend on travel, but you had to leave this weekend,
        where would you go and why?
      * Which Spice Girl would you elect as president of the United States?
    * Play games
      * Here are some games to play to connect. 
    * Conduct live polls
      * Ask what the weather is like where people are located.
      * Have everyone describe their mood in one word or gif.

Beyond just making your team feel more comfortable with each other, questions
can also serve to give insight into everyone’s current state. If, for instance,
one of your team members is on the East Coast and there’s a hurricane warning
there, that person may be feeling some tension. That’s important for you to
know.


WHERE THE WORK HAPPENS

After your meeting has opened and your team members feel more connected to each
other, it’s time to get to work. 

There are two types of meetings: status updates and collaborative
problem-solving sessions. For updates, your team will simply share the status of
their tasks (something like Scrum meetings). And then there are the other types
of meetings in which problems need to be solved. In general, people meet to
understand, innovate, collaborate, and make decisions.

In a problem-solving meeting, you’ll want to encourage “divergent thinking.”
During this portion of the meeting you’ll:

 * Facilitate an open, free-flowing discussion
 * Gather diverse points of view
 * Suspend judgement
 * Generate alternatives to proposed ideas

It’s important here that you actively document this portion of the meeting. Use
Lucidspark to keep track of ideas without interrupting their flow. 

Meeting notes template (click on image to modify online)

Then, you can prepare for the next part of the meeting—the “convergent
thinking”— in which you’ll:

 * Evaluate alternatives
 * Summarize key points
 * Sort ideas into categories
 * Exercise judgment

There are also plenty of ways to spur ideas if your meeting starts to falter,
which you’ll recognize if you’re actively reading the room for signs of
discomfort or boredom or fatigue. You may consider breaking the team into
smaller groups using breakout boards, or using a timer to put some moderate
pressure on the team to move forward (which is often useful for generating
ideas). If your team comes to an impasse on an idea, consider putting it to a
vote. 

Not everything will go as planned, and you may not come out of the meeting with
a perfect solution. But you’ll find that issues are less challenging to address
when people are connected, and there’s something very powerful about using
collective brainpower and creativity to generate ideas.

Pay attention to who’s not contributing, how everyone is engaging, and what
people’s body language looks like to determine if your team is struggling. If
they need some help, ask them what would be beneficial to generate ideas or
solve problems. Being direct can often be the antidote to awkwardness.


CLOSING TOGETHER 

A great meeting with a bad ending can ruin the whole experience. For a graceful
exit, begin closing the meeting five minutes before the end of the hour. Some
things to do before you end:

 * Wrap up any final questions - Don’t leave anyone hanging. If there’s a
   question you don’t have the immediate answer to, make an action item.
 * Be clear on next steps around what was discussed in the meeting - The
   greatest intentions mean nothing without clear assignments. If you’re using
   Lucidspark, you can turn suggestions into action items easily. 
 * Close the connection - This means more than just saying “Thanks!” Your team
   has opened a connection, used that connection with each other, and it’s
   important to honor that connection. Consider asking your team to use one word
   to describe something they’re grateful for about the meeting or their day.

Hybrid work is here to stay. You and your team will be better off by building up
emotional intelligence to read rooms, including virtual ones, when leading
meetings. And that’s one thing that sets meeting leaders—people who are
preoccupied with delegating—apart from facilitators, who are more concerned with
guiding the team through a constructive process. Facilitation is what you want
to aim for, as it’s the best way to encourage team members to collaborate and do
their best creative thinking and problem-solving. It’s more about creating the
right environment for the magic to happen. 

Reading the room is very much about reintroducing humanity into meetings, and
that is crucial for building business value. Robots, after all, cannot
brainstorm or create. Without allowing your team the space to lean into their
humanity, they won’t be able to establish the connections needed that are so
vital for solving problems and developing ideas. 

Remember that, no matter what you need to get done in your meeting, if you start
and end well, the agenda will go more smoothly. It may seem like much more
effort to connect with yourself and encourage connection in others instead of
just starting the way you usually do, but those minutes really are worth their
weight in gold. 

Watch our webinar with Agile coaches Simon Macpherson and Emilia Breton for more
tips on reading the room during meetings. 



Take me there


WATCH OUR WEBINAR WITH AGILE COACHES SIMON MACPHERSON AND EMILIA BRETON FOR MORE
TIPS ON READING THE ROOM DURING MEETINGS.

Take me there


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