Most have you have seen the hilarious, but oh-so-real “A Conference Call (in Real Life)” by tRIPP and tYLER (22 million views) that mocks dozens of common online meeting problems. While most of us now use video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, the problems are remarkably similar.

Whether you have seen it or not, the humor wraps around online meeting problems we’ve all had, continue to have, and will have again . . . 

THE PROBLEMS

Online Meeting Problems . . . the First Minute

• Uncomfortable small talk responses and inability to “connect” over copper.
• Being interrupted by participants arriving late.
• Echo and shrieking feedback from the audio give participants headaches.
• Discussion about the source of the echo.
• Notification sounds and other audible alarm distractions should be silenced in advance.

Online Meeting Problems . . . the Second Minute

• Interrupted again by more participants arriving late.
• A file link that becomes inoperable for those who are “required to download a plugin.”
• Uncomfortable and delayed pauses waiting for the other person to speak again.
• Participants talk over one another in an attempt to help.
• Inability to determine the Operating System version, required to match up with the correct plug-in version.
• Everybody then jumped in at once—again.
• Voice and video get jumbled and no one understands the content contribution. or admits it.
• Participant gets bumped offline and keeps talking because they don’t know it.

Online Meeting Problems . . . the Third Minute

• Screen sharing causes the presenter to lose non-verbal feedback from participants.
• Participants cannot see the speaker well because they have not “pinned” the speaker.
• Group discussion spent on whether the contributor has been “lost” or “frozen” (again).
• Participants made a significant contribution, only to discover they were on mute.
• Others going adrift because of checking email, playing solitaire, etc.
• Participants shout one set of fix-it instructions for Windows when they participant is using Mac OS (or vice versa).
• Loudly barking dog (really loud that is, not a whimper or quick bark).
• Interruption while the dog owner shouts disciplinary instructions to the dog.
• An espresso machine in the background drowns out important content.

Online Meeting Problems . . . the Fractional Final Minute

• Participants depart before the meeting ends.
• Unsuspecting participant speaks up, previously unacknowledged, but attending the entire session.
• Eager to add content, they discover key personnel now gone or missing, and therefore unable to share valuable content.

THE SOLUTIONS

You and your organization will NOT be able to do everything required. Most cultures simply won’t allow disciplined behavior, such as preventing meetings from going overtime. However, if you don’t try, the problems above will repeat themselves, and slowly become seen as “normal”, thus expected and tolerated by most employees.

Incredibly, most of your solutions have little to do with specialized business expertise. Rather, the discipline required derives from basic communication skills and interpersonal respect. There is no federal law, or ethical standard for that matter, that demands employers treat employees with respect. For most “at-will” employees, they have the liberty or option to simply quit if they don’t like the way they are being treated.

In addition to some basic online etiquette such as silencing your Notifications and No Hiding (turning off the video), here are some other solutions.

Communication Basics

• When listening, do not assume. Rather, confirm. All too often we proceed as if everybody else understands the same words and situations as we do. Prudently, assume the opposite. There is typically at least one person in any meeting who views the meaning of terms or interpretation of the situation differently. Probably caused by different backgrounds, upbringing, and other life experiences, we should embrace and leverage the alternative point of view. Breakthrough and creativity are with new thinking. Innovation results from plurality, incongruity, seemingly unrelated, and other patterns of perception that represent the opposite of cloning yourself.
• Structured icebreakers and warm-up exercises have proven the value of discipline. Simple structure such as having everyone answer an icebreaker question can create value and strengthen connections among employees. Small talk will not increase productivity like structured introductions, such as some form of an icebreaker. Studies are showing that icebreakers are particularly valuable when meetings are consistently held online, such as mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Active listening mitigates many of the problems mentioned. By providing consistent and reliable reflection, everyone gets heard, and everyone hears what the other person said. With luck, the facilitator has also reflected WHY they said it. Remember, people speak about symptoms, not causes. You build consensus at a causal level, not by focusing on symptoms. People think “stink”, not prevailing wind. Likewise, people think “spicy”, not Scoville Units. And people think the “cost of living”, is not disposable income after all the bills have been paid.

Leadership Requirements

• Meetings require leaders and the very best embrace a servant-leadership mindset that reflects the skills necessary to be an effective facilitator. Facilitators above all protect the participants. Someone needs to interrupt the interrupter. While it remains both unavoidable and acceptable for some to speak briefly about items not within the meeting scope, when the talk becomes a distraction, nuisance, or puts the meeting objectives at risk, the side conversations need to be effectively reined in by the facilitator.
• Proper documentation should precede meetings. While difficult to imagine, participants should never agree to attend a meeting without a deliverable and an agenda. How many completely unstructured discussions have been worth your time? If so, then your time might not be worth as much as it should. Meeting invitations should include the meeting purpose, scope, objectives, agenda, and other necessary information such as access numbers, passcodes, PINS, SharePoint, file attachments, etc.
• Virtual seating arrangements can be leveraged to ensure more effective “Round-Robins” so that all participants are afforded an opportunity to speak. Always provide participants with permission to say “pass.” Facilitators also need to be more effective and frequent with their use of Breakouts to stimulate and keep people moving. A multitude of activities, auditory, and visual stimulation adds to the Zen of the online experience, providing valuable texture in an otherwise flat world of flat screens.

Cultural Factors

• Punctuality, time management, and respecting others’ time should become commonplace within your culture, rather than the exception. In team sports, much like team businesses, if players arrive late or miss the spot they should occupy, the team scores less often or yields itself to its competitors. Is business that much different? Extensive studies have correlated innovation, eco-sensitivity, and other factors with increased growth and profitability. We’re willing to bet that timeliness also correlates highly with profitability.
• Effective facilitators enforce ground rules. Whether policing electronic leashes or challenging participants to make their thinking visible, ground rules help teams get more done faster. Enforce standards that playing games and multi-tasking are unacceptable behavior—clear violations of fiduciary responsibility.
• Perhaps alone on this, common and brief background noises such as doorbells or brief barking don’t bother us at all. They are natural and mostly unavoidable in both our remote and office environments. Common household noises are no different than hi-rise elevator noise, PA (public address) systems, or shouting across cubicles. If they are not a distraction, who cares? (flushing toilets is a different matter entirely). We waste time fumbling with mute buttons, in addition to repeating content previously muted. Standard background noise such as a child running down the hallway causes few delays or wasted moments.

Equipment Issues

• Enterprises and organizations need to step up and provide employees with more robust online tools. Cheap cameras and microphones waste time and money. Online meetings are here to stay. Even in a post-Covid world, the benefits to individuals, organizations, communities, and the planet are clear—working remotely can add value. Not everyone and not every day perhaps but ZOOM and TEAMS are not going away—ever (Until replaced by holographic equipment or some other, improved technology that benefits remote workers and reduces carbon displacement). Is there anything more annoying than a reverberating echo or loud screech caused by inferior equipment?
• With some luck, manufacturers will improve their acceptance and use of universal keyboard commands. How do I pin that? Where is the mute? How do I switch cameras? We could go on and on, but it will benefit everyone to use and embrace some common keyboard commands, icons, and shortcuts so that we can seamlessly go from MAC to PC to iPad to phone without needing to completely re-orient ourselves. Is it too much to ask for a common keyboard command that pins the speaker or another that provides a Gallery view?

Finally: Specialized Training Helps

First, don’t expect to facilitate successfully online if you don’t have the training and skills to facilitate a meeting in person. If you’re not a trained meeting facilitator, now is the time to step up your game. Check out our calendar of professional ONLINE and on-site classes HERE.

That said… There are tips specific to connecting with your participants online. We attended Daniel Mezick’s class, Connect and Communicate: How to Teach ONLINE which will help you better connect with all your virtual people, and yourself. Daniel is a special person and a superb teacher.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH focuses on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

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With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference

• 20 Prioritization Techniques = https://foldingburritos.com/product-prioritization-techniques/
• Creativity Techniques = https://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques
• Facilitation Training Calendar = https://mgrush.com/public-facilitation-training-calendar/
• Liberating Structures = http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu
• Management Methods = https://www.valuebasedmanagement.net
• Newseum = https://www.freedomforum.org/todaysfrontpages/
• People Search = https://pudding.cool/2019/05/people-map/
• Project Gutenberg = http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Scrum Events Agendas = https://mgrush.com/blog/scrum-facilitation/
• Speed test = https://www.speedtest.net/result/8715401342
• Teleconference call = https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ
• The Size of Space = https://neal.fun/size-of-space/
• Thiagi/ 400 ready-to-use training games = http://thiagi.net/archive/www/games.html
• Visualization methods = http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#
• Walking Gorilla = https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo