Meetings have long been an essential part of how workers communicate in an organization. They allow workers to come together and discuss a topic in-depth, strategize, and help to ensure everyone is aligned on their priorities and goals.

For remote workers meetings are especially important. While tools like Slack and Asana are useful to communicate information about projects, these tools have their limitations.

Running meetings is an essential part of maintaining order and structure on a remote team. But how can you run an effective remote meeting? What should you do to ensure everything runs smoothly?

According to a report by Buffer, 20% of remote workers cite collaboration and communication as their top struggle as a remote worker. With this in mind, it’s clear how important it is to think about what you can do to run a more effective meeting.

In this article, we are going to share a few top tips you can use to run an efficient and effective meeting with your remote team. We’ll divide this guide into three parts: what you should do before a remote meeting, how to run a remote meeting, and what you should do after a meeting.

 

Before the meeting

 

A remote meeting is successful when everyone feels engaged and is able to contribute to the discussion. This process starts before the meeting even begins. There are a few things you can do to set up your meeting for success beforehand, which we outline below.

 

  • Ask whether you need a meeting and prepare an agenda

 

Do you need to schedule a meeting? This is the first question you should ask. A large number of meetings end up being unproductive because there was not a clear intention set for the meeting. This is where the frustration “that could have been an email” comes from.

Before you run a remote meeting, ask yourself whether the problem a meeting is designed to address can be solved without a meeting. Could you use Slack or another tool to communicate on a particular topic?

Can you answer the question you’re thinking about yourself? If so, don’t schedule a meeting, because unless it is clear that a meeting will be valuable, it will likely not be productive for all involved.

If a meeting is appropriate, take some time to prepare an agenda that outlines what you want to discuss, and what action items should be brought up.

 

  • Set up the right tools

 

There are a number of tools out there that can be used to run a meeting remotely. For instance, you can use Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or other programs. With that said, you should spend some time figuring out which tools work best for you, and invest in making sure everyone knows how to use them.

Before a meeting starts, make sure you have thought about what tools you are going to use. To do this effectively, you should also consider what you hope to accomplish in the call.

If you are looking for a quick chat, Google Hangouts may be best. If you need access to screen sharing features, perhaps Zoom would be better. If you want to collaborate on a document, you may also want to use Google Docs.

The more time you spend preparing the tools upfront, the less likely you are to encounter technical issues during the meeting.

 

  • During the meeting

 

After you’ve considered whether a meeting is necessary and you have set up the right tools, you’ll be ready to start running a meeting. Here are a few tips you can use to make sure your meeting runs smoothly:

 

  • Start with a friendly chat

 

In an office, there are plenty of opportunities for team members to get together and chat. These informal conversations are a crucial part of building strong teams, and they make everyone feel more connected to each other.

On a remote team, however, these interactions usually take place over chat—if at all—which, as we discussed, has its limitations.

Before you officially “commence” a meeting, give people an opportunity to catch up for a minute or two. Encourage everyone to say “hello,” and share how their day is going. You may even ask questions like “so, where are you calling in from?” to encourage people to be more open and to set a good tone for the call.

 

  • Present an agenda

 

Once you’ve introduced everyone, present an agenda for the call. This will allow everyone to understand what you hope to accomplish in the meeting, and will also ensure everyone stays on-track. You should also ask your team if anyone has any other business they want to raise, which you may want to account for in your agenda before the meeting officially starts.

 

  • Discuss action items

 

The key to a good remote meeting is for there to be a clear intention set. While an agenda goes a long way to explaining the purpose of a call, you should also make sure that action items are discussed. Tell your remote team members that you want to establish next steps, and get them involved with the process.

Are you looking for feedback on a project? Does a team member need to do something specific? If so, make sure these are all recorded.

This is especially important because if someone goes away with the wrong idea of their next steps, they can’t walk up to you after the meeting and ask you about action items like they would in an office. So, make sure everyone is on the same page about next steps during the meeting.

 

  • Create a set of rules

 

In an office, the rules for a meeting are clear: you should pay attention, you should not be on your phone. But when you are calling into a meeting remotely, it’s easier to disobey these rules (and harder for people to notice when you do). So, when you’re running a meeting, you should make sure that you have a clear set of rules for the call.

Here are a few ideas which you could use to develop your own policy on how people should act in a remote call:

 

  • Everyone should have an opportunity to speak.
  • Phones should be turned off in the background.
  • Video should be on, when possible.
  • All technology should be tested before the meeting.
  • Everyone should read the agenda before the call.
  • All Slack and email notifications should be turned off.
  • Team members should be in a quiet place.

 

These are simple rules, but establishing them upfront ensures everyone knows how best to present themselves in the call.

 

After the meeting

 

The meeting does not end when the Zoom or Google Hangouts call finishes; there is still work that needs to be done. After a remote meeting has ended, there are a few things you can do to make sure that everyone is on the same page and is ready to get to work on what was discussed.

 

  • Send follow-ups to team members

 

After the meeting, send an email or a Slack message to all attendees reminding them of what was discussed. This gives everyone a document to which they can refer if they are trying to think back to the purpose of a meeting.

In addition, follow-ups also ensure that everyone has a record of a meeting, including people who were unable to attend or who may not have attended the full meeting.

Documentation is particularly important for meetings with software engineers or web developers, ensuring that everyone is clear on the action items and how to implement them.

 

  • Check-in on action items

 

In the following hours and days after a call, check in with people who were in the meeting and ask them about the progress they have made toward their action items.

Have they met their goals? If they are struggling, you can offer to lend a hand and also seek feedback on how you could improve your communication in the future.

 

  • Establish a cadence

 

In remote teams, meetings give everyone an opportunity to see each other and to speak at a time when everyone is available.

While a coworker may respond to a Slack message while they are in a coffee shop ordering their coffee, this is not possible during a meeting: everyone has to be focused on the task-at-hand. This further demonstrates the importance of hosting meetings for remote teams, where people are less exposed to the serendipitous interactions that happen in an office.

After a remote meeting, you should establish a cadence for future meetings. Do you want to host a 10 minute stand up daily for all team members? Or do you want to set a weekly meeting up to discuss the project you are working on?

By establishing a cadence, workers will know when to expect meetings. This ensures that they have adequate time to prepare, and reduces the need to schedule last-minute calls which may be disruptive to remote workers.

 

Running successful remote meetings

 

Successfully operating a remote meeting can sound intimidating, but with the help of the steps we have outlined in this article, you’ll be ready to run a meeting like a professional.

Ultimately, successful remote meetings are ones that have a clear purpose and make everyone feel involved. By the end of a meeting, people should feel like they were able to contribute and should have clear next steps set for themselves.

If you prepare adequately for a meeting, establish a set of rules like we discussed earlier, and take proper steps to follow-up after a meeting, you’ll be on your way to running great remote calls where everyone feels empowered, involved, and part of the team!

Due to recent events, a lot of dog parents are obligated to work from home.

Dog parents are starting to realize that it’s not as simple as it sounds.

This situation is awkward both for fido and it’s human family.

In order to reclaim the amazing bond between dogs and their human families, our expert (Patty) wrote an in-depth guide for working from home with a dog.

You can find our guide here:

The Dog Parent Productivity Guide For Working From Home With A Dog

Working from home has long had an allure for many people. Certainly, staying home on a daily basis, rolling out of bed and going to work in pajamas can be luxurious. However, without a proper work station, working from home can be unnecessarily difficult, unpleasant, and may even lead to ergonomic injury



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