We’ve shared plenty of advice on how to have good online meetings. We thought we’d take a different angle and share our favorite pet peeves. Continuing our series on tips for virtual meetings, here are six ways to guarantee your online meetings will be absolutely terrible.
28. Show up late. We get it. You’re busy. We all are. But when you show up late, you’re sending the message that other people’s time isn’t as important as yours. And if your organization has a habit of scheduling back-to-back 60-minute meetings, start a trend by scheduling 50-minute meetings, building in a 10-minute break. Your meetings will be better, and you will enjoy newfound popularity.
29. Check your email or otherwise allow yourself to get distracted. Not everything that happens in a meetings is going to be relevant to you. That’s not an excuse to mentally check out. If there’s an ongoing trend of being invited to meetings where you really don’t need to be there, have an offline discussion with the meeting organizer.
30. Leave your microphone on. You will be the last person to hear your own background noise. We’ve heard slurping, chewing, nose blowing, toilets flushing, barking dogs, lawn mowing, garbage disposals, garbage trucks, and what we’re pretty sure was a rocket launch. Leaving your microphone on is the online equivalent of that guy in the theater who opens a cough drop for three minutes. Don’t be that guy. Mute yourself if you’re not speaking.
31. Make the presenter responsible for troubleshoot your tech challenges. The meeting organizer or presenter isn’t automatically an expert in the webmeeting platform you’re using. When something goes wrong, assume the problem is on your side and troubleshoot on your own. Anyone you might ask for help won’t be able to see your screen anyway, and most problems can be solved by slowing down and reading through the tool options or what the webmeeting software is already telling you.
32. Announce every step of your own troubleshooting. “I can’t hear…. can you hear me? I can’t make this work.... Ok… let me try this… it says audio options… should I click that? I’m going to click that… I clicked that… now what? It says switch to phone… should I switch to phone? I’m switching to phone… There’s a phone number on the screen… should I dial it? I’m dialing it. Now it’s asking for a meeting ID….” Please don’t extravert your troubleshooting.
33. Show up unprepared. This goes beyond knowing the purpose, process, and your role in the meeting. You also have to be proficient with the webmeeting platform to be able to participate equally with others. Most webmeeting platforms (like Zoom) offer links to make test calls as a way to get familiar with the software. Do your homework. Be prepared.
Tips 1 - 5 are in part 1 of Quick Tips for Virtual Meetings: http://www.lizardbrainsolutions.com/think-with-ink/2020/3/13/5-quick-tips-for-virtual-meetings
Tips 6 - 11 are in part 2 of Quick Tips for Virtual Meetings: http://www.lizardbrainsolutions.com/think-with-ink/2020/3/25/5-more-quick-tips-for-virtual-meetings-keeping-engagement-high
Tips 12 - 16 are in part 3 of Quick Tips for Virtual Meetings: http://www.lizardbrainsolutions.com/think-with-ink/2020/3/30/even-more-quick-tips-for-virtual-meetings-how-to-keep-things-smooth-when-youre-not-in-charge
Tips 17 - 22 are all about design: https://www.lizardbrain.com/think-with-ink/quick-tips-for-virtual-meetings-its-all-about-the-numbers
Tips 23-27 are all about preparing participants in advance: https://www.lizardbrain.com/think-with-ink/quick-tips-for-virtual-meetings-get-participants-ready-before-the-meeting