Back in the day, people used to rush from one meeting to the next.

It’s great to consider ways to ensure that online meetings are productive, focused, and collaborative now that nearly everyone works from home.

This unprecedented crisis will have long-lasting consequences for how we work together. It’s important to have an agenda, a moderator, and time constraints. Before planning, it is also helpful to invite others for questions, information, and schedules.

These are five things you should consider before scheduling, planning, and running your next remote meeting. This will ensure that everyone stays productive and informed.

Find out if a meeting is necessary

Conduct a Meeting Audit before you start planning. Consider what is important in the new world order, and then cancel any unnecessary meetings.

• Is it possible to replace the meeting with an email?

• It is possible to replace individual project updates with weekly or biweekly rounds on the status of multiple projects, with 10- and 15-minute status reports from individual project leaders.

• You could create a simple project report with questions and distribute it instead of scheduling a meeting.

• Invite only key stakeholders to meetings, and ensure that attendees are fully informed about their roles.

• Discuss the decision to keep meetings small with your teams so they can understand why these shifts are occurring.

• With those who were not invited, share post-meeting recaps.

Designate a meeting leader

Let other attendees know who the meeting leader is and assign one member to each meeting. The meeting leader should be:

• Communicate early with the leaders about the meeting’s goals.

• Set up, circulate, time-manage, and share it with others.

• Use meeting notes to share with attendees and influencers. The meeting leader can give a colleague permission to take notes. However, they must edit the notes down into an actionable summary.

• Make sure all attendees are aware of their roles, next steps, and when they should be meeting.

• Assist the team with follow-up questions and concerns

Create Guidelines for Remote Meetings

Our teams face unexpected challenges at this time. It’s crucial that everyone is prepared. These guidelines can help make the meeting run smoothly.

• It is important to let attendees know in advance the purpose of the meeting.

• Let team members know what to do and their roles.

• Have a plan B and test your technology before you go to the meeting.

• Give space for everyone to contribute. Invite quieter people into the conversation and encourage engagement.

• Communicate that multitasking in meetings is not appropriate.

• Everyone must follow the same path. For those who have been used to face-to-face interactions, it can be difficult to follow virtual meetings.

Take five: Allow team members to speak

We all know the frustration of meetings where one person talks and everyone else is silent. In other words, introduce “the first five” in remote meetings to listen to members of the team talk about their feelings and how they are doing.

• For team members who want to share their thoughts or catch up, add time to the agenda.

• If attendees prefer to not participate, they can join the call at any time.

• Allow everyone to participate by creating pauses in the conversation.

• After five minutes, let the moderator direct the discussion and bring it back to the agenda.

Make Meetings Flexible

To accommodate the changes in the way that our teams work, and the added stress and responsibilities many of you are facing, has established guidelines for flexibility.

• To accommodate parents who have multiple children, set up “meeting hours” for the company (such as 9-11 am and 1-3 pm)

• Participants can dial into video calls only when it is necessary.

• Allow attendees to leave meetings at any time if they feel that they are not needed or want to end the meeting.

• Invite team feedback What do you need to feel at ease in a remote meeting?

Effective Meeting Checklist

• Determine if a meeting will be necessary.
• Designate a leader for the meeting.
• All stakeholders should be kept informed
• Individual and shared roles.
• Technology testing.
• Track, schedule, adhere to, and keep track of your time and your agenda.
• Flexibility is key in this new era.