LAST month, I wrote my first Covid-19 related article. It was about remote working.
A big part of remote working is teleconferencing. Although we can’t meet people face-to-face during this time of Movement Control Order (MCO), it doesn’t mean we can’t hold meetings. It’s just got to be done virtually, via the Internet.
Most of us are probably familiar with Skype. It’s probably the first video conferencing application we all use, mainly for making personal video calls.
You could, of course, use Skype for business-related calls but if you want to hold serious business meetings with multiple people involved, it’s better to use some of the more business-centric apps out there.
Let’s look at two popular apps — Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Zoom has seen a boom in popularity during this Covid-19 crisis because of its ease of use. It has a free option which can host up to 100 participants and group meetings can last up to 40 minutes. If you want longer than that, you’ll have to use the paid version.
It should be highlighted, however, that there have been some security and privacy concerns about Zoom. Trolls have managed to take advantage of Zoom’s lax security to create online attacks known as Zoombombing.
The company has formed a council of chief information security officers from other companies to learn best practices on how to make the service more secure.
Microsoft Teams has, since 2018, made a free version of Teams for smaller companies. Now, in light of the Covid-19 situation, the company is offering a free six-month trial for the premium version of Teams.
Having the right app is crucial but equally important is adopting best practices for holding virtual meetings, which are different from face-to-face meetings in some key respects.
Here are some things you should consider before holding a teleconference with many parties involved.
ONLY WHEN NECESSARY
Although you can hold an online meeting as often as you’d like, that doesn’t mean every decision you wish to make requires a meeting.
If you make it a point to call everybody for a conference call for even the smallest matters, pretty soon you’ll find people either refusing to join in or they won’t pay attention during the call.
Hold online meetings only when really necessary. And only invite those who really need to be in on the call.
Remember, most people aren’t used to remote working and many are still struggling to figure out ways to do it well. The last thing they need is to be stuck in front of their computer monitors attending online meeting after online meetings.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Remember that Murphy’s Law can hit any time and it often does when it comes to technology. You might have the app properly installed but your microphone settings might be wrong or your video cam might not be working properly.
If you’re planning to host a meeting, it’s imperative that you test out the app on your computer a few times first to ensure everything is working fine.
If you’re inviting some people who are new to the app, send them clear instructions on how to install and how to log into the call.
Don’t assume everyone you’re dealing with is tech-savvy or even familiar with teleconferencing. They might not have done this before. If so, ask them to install the app ahead of time and try it out before the scheduled meeting.
INTERRUPTIONS
Since everyone is stuck at home, that means everyone will be doing their teleconferencing at home. If you have a home office or a room dedicated for working purposes, great. But most people don’t have that. So, they might be doing this in the living room or the kitchen or some corner of their home.
A house is generally not a conducive place to conduct online meetings because there are so many possible disruptions that could happen.
Children might interrupt. Your pet dog might suddenly need to urgently go outdoors to ease itself. The food that you ordered to be delivered to your house might arrive while the meeting is ongoing.
Knowing this, take great pains to ensure ahead of time that any potential interruptions that you can think of will not happen.
AGENDA
Every meeting of course has a purpose but to make it a productive one, you need to list out clearly the agenda of the meeting and send it to all those who will be participating so they know what to expect.
This will give them time to prepare as well. If you’re chairing the meeting, make a checklist of items that need to be discussed. It’s also helpful to note down what information you’ll need from whom.
PUNCTUALITY
Different cultures have different emphasis on time. In Germany, for example, everything starts on time. Sadly, in Malaysia, we have this phenomenon called “Malaysian Time” where everything is at least 15 minutes late. This is one aspect of our culture that we need to be ashamed of and try to get away from.
If you’re having a business meeting, it’s not good enough to be there just on time. Be there early, as a sign of respect. The same principle should be applied to virtual meetings.
Arguably, it’s even more important to be early when it’s an online meeting because there could be all kinds of malfunctioning equipment on any of the participant’s hardware (microphone or webcam not working, Internet connections wobbly, etc…).
If everyone arrives early and logs on early, these things can be detected and hopefully fixed before the meeting begins.
FOCUS
Every meeting needs a chairperson; not necessarily for formality’s sake but for a very practical reason. You need someone to keep the meeting focused, on track, and on time.
If it’s a small meeting involving very few people, it is easy enough to stay focused, but if there are many people involved, people can easily get side-tracked.
The chairperson needs to steer the conversation back to whatever the agenda is for the meeting.
It’s also important to try to conclude the meeting on time rather than letting is stray and go into over-time.
If people get the sense that your meetings always end up as rambling sessions that last too long, nobody will want to join the next time you call for one.
ACTION POINTS
A meeting is productive if you end with some clear decisions made and some action points agreed upon. Don’t leave things hanging. A good practice is to state very clearly to everyone what was decided and get everyone to verify whether what you stated was indeed correct.
If everyone is in agreement, then move on to the action points that need to be done and their deadlines. Again, get everybody to verify that this was what the group has agreed upon.
MEMO
After the meeting ends, ideally on the same day itself, draft up the key points that were discussed, the decisions made and the action points that need to be undertaken.
Put this down in bullet points and e-mail it to everybody, together with a note of thanks for taking the time to join you in the meeting. It might also be a good idea to suggest the next meeting date, time and agenda.
Online meetings will never be exactly the same as face-to-face meetings. There are some advantages and disadvantages to both.
Online meetings lack the human touch of meeting people in person. And that’s really important for building chemistry. But online meetings also save time and in many ways are more efficient than physical meetings.
In time, the Covid-19 situation will die down and things will start to return to normal.
Physical meetings will take place once again but it’s almost a certainty that more online meetings will be conducted than ever before as people would have realised how useful they can be when done right.
Oon Yeoh is a consultant with experiences in print, online and mobile media. Reach him at oonyeoh@gmail.com.