Remote Meetings Guide to The Galaxy

A definitive approach for online interaction that don’t suck

Prelude

Oh, dude…

These times of social distancing are really a thing (if you’re reading this in a distant future and/or galaxy please note we had a pandemic virus here at earth planet during the year of 2020).

Personally, I’m an introvert kind of person and have been staying long time of my life dealing with being alone in several countries around the world while doing business and, kinda enjoy having plenty of time alone (meditation practices also helped a lot with that) but, anyway, I see that these current times offer a unique challenge and opportunity.

Challenge in a way that, while we are working our asses off from home (and some of us also dealing with children), as leaders, we need also to keep our team engaged and be more mindful about the subtle signals of our team mental health during these times (at the end we can not assume that everyone is an introvert).

And an opportunity in a way that, we have been a long time speaking about all the wonders of technology of remote communication tools and how this could improve life/work balance but, by the end, just a handful of us are enlightened/bold enough to stop being lazy and make the change happen.

In fact, most of the companies leaderships just exploited these tools to extract more work hours from people and invade their personal time (and this is still a huge risk in this turning point) and, now that life just decided to kick our asses and force us to think, we have now the opportunity to decide and act:

Will we perseverate the current and old system or will we be brave enough to change it in a way to be efficient but also improve our people's life?

Introduction

Ok! Enough reflection!

As we know, meetings are a fundamental part of communication at companies, right?

Yes, the most of them are executed in a boring way, most of them could be an email, but, even that said, they are still fundamental pice for the human communication/interaction, decision making and problem-solving and…doing it remotely can be a challenge for the most of people.

Do this need to be in this way? Absolutely not and, after some considerable time researching, I’m providing you here, guidelines that I understand can change your remote meeting situation forever.

Let’s go.

So…What makes a great remote meeting?

Well. First of all, fundamentally a remote meeting is a meeting and so we can answer the most part of this question, replying to what makes a good meeting and then adding some specific points. Let’s take a look in the list below:

1. Have a clear purpose;
2. Keep the attendees engaged;
3. Provide a safe space for divergent thinking;
4. Generate real and shareable output;
5. Genuine social interaction;
6. Good infrastructure and tools.

Let’s take a look at each one of them…

1. Have a clear purpose

Why you are inviting people to participate in this meeting? Is this really something that needs a meeting or it’s something that can be done with an email? What kind of output you need to achieve with that and how many people should be involved?

These are crucial questions and, let me show how they provide you essential information.

Question: Why are you inviting people to participate in this meeting?

Sounds very basic question (and it is) but the truth is that is very common to see in a lot of companies, especially the ones that have a bad habit of doing meetings all the time and for any reason, to just invite meeting before having a clear understanding of what is this about.

Maybe you need to take a collective decision to stop a project. Maybe you had an insight and need inputs to develop it into a possible product feature. Maybe you need to communicate about a manager who is leaving the company.

Try to write it down in a simple sentence or paragraph and this will help you to build a good agenda/schedule for the meeting and to answer the next question.

Question: What kind of output do you want from the meeting?

If you know why is this meeting being suggested/required, it is easier and important to know, and let invited people to know as well, what kind of output is expected from this meeting.

Usually, the outputs/styles of meetings are the following:

1. Output: A shared decision | Style: Democratic & Voting;
2. Output: Raw Ideas & Insights | Style: Semi-Chaotic & Brainstorming;
3. Output: Developed Ideas | Style: Methodic Collaboration;
4. Output: Open Information & Notification | Style: Unidirectional;
5. Output: Sensitive Information & Feedback | Style: 1 to 1 & Confidential;

Note that this also helps you to define in advance what kind of inputs you need from and/or for the invited people and which tools should be provided as well.

Question: Does it really need a meeting?

Finally, it’s always good to ask yourself if this can be done with a good email. Asynchronous communication (like an email) is very important and powerful especially for very busy and strategic people. Have it in mind.

As general advice, if your output/style is the number 4 on the list (open information & notification), I suggest you seriously consider a good email or report as an option for most of the cases.

2. Keep the attendees engaged

I know. I know. It’s easier to say than to do.

Even, a survey from Harvard Business Review shows that people, instead of being fully present at the remote meetings, are usually in parallel:

• Doing their emails (63%);
• Doing other work (65%);
• Checking their social media (43%);
• Playing games (25%);
• Doing online shopping (21%);
• Going to the toilet (46%).

Anyway, there are good and powerful advice & practices that can change the situation considerably.

• Invite the right people and the right amount of people;
• No hybrid presence (All Remote);
• Audio & Video always it’s possible;
• Ask collaboration for the agenda/schedule creation if possible;
• Headset + Quiet place;
• Turn off notifications;
• Be punctual;

Let’s take a look at each one of these.

Invite the right people and the right amount of people

One of the most boring and frustrating things is to be present at a meeting where you are not able to contribute and/or in a meeting with a huge number of attendees keep silent like mummies while one or two speak desperately all the time. It is bad for everyone.

So, the point here is to invite who is really able to contribute and/or make decisions and, aside from that, the right amount of people for your purpose/output.

But what is the right amount of people? It can vary but, in general, you can follow the advice below:

• For decision making try to keep a maximum of 6 attendees;
• For brainstorming or methodic collaboration, you can go above and beyond but, be mindful about providing good tools and facilitation;
• Finally, for sensitive information you should consider from 1 to 1 up the minimal number of needed/allowed people;

No hybrid presence (all remote)

When I say hybrid presence I mean when you have 2 or more attendees locally present and the rest of them remotely.

The point here is maybe not so intuitive but when you have a part of the attendees locally present (in the same physical space), it’s very tempting and natural to them using other communication channels or ways like body language, whispering or, even sometimes muting the mic to have a separate discussion.

By the end this can make the remote attendees feel at a disadvantage and even suspicious, breaking the trust/engagement, and, in the situation of the current pandemic it’s also a question of being safe.

So, the advice is, if one attendee is remote, all the rest should do the same (even if they are in the same building).

Audio & video always it’s possible

Especially in these days of coronavirus, we are the most of time working from home and far from our team and, in some cases even living alone, it’s always good to use the best of available technology to see the face of our teammates.

This is also true independently of the current lockdown situation and, by the end, you lose a lot of the communication nuances and human interaction by not providing access to body language.

Ask collaboration for the agenda/schedule creation if possible

This advice is especially a good one if you have your meetings usually hijacked by some colleagues with a different topic to discuss that is out of the planned schedule/agenda.

Making sure that, before execute the meeting this person can check and collaborate in the schedule/agenda can reduce a lot of these situations that, even sometimes generating great outputs, are in general frustrating to everyone.

Headset + quiet place

Especially when you have kids or other people in the same environment from where you are attending remotely, it’s a good idea to suggest attendees to go to a separate quiet place using a good headset in order to be fully available and, avoid undesired noises that can disrupt team’s attention.

I know that sometimes it’s very cute to see your kids dancing behind you on the camera but, of course, if these interruptions happen constantly this can become a problem for you and the team.

Turn off notifications

Again. Aside from the physical distraction, the world, web, and devices are constantly in a huge fight to grab our attention every minute so, if it’s not good even for your health, imagine for the sake of focus and attention during an important meeting.

So, trying to remove all the nonessential, if not possible to remove all notifications/alerts is another simple and powerful advice.

Be punctual

Finally, for the sake of respecting the timing of the attendees, you should reinforce the importance of being punctual by starting at maximum 5 minutes later.

This can be challenging for some cultures, like in the Middle East where being delayed a making people wait for you is generally a way to show that you’re powerful/important or, even in Latin America and India where people are usually afraid to say no to invitations even having all their time already occupied but, keep pushing and then it will become a new habit.

3. Provide a safe place for divergent thinking

This could be part of the engagement topic, but since it’s so important (and a problem in a lot of companies) I decided to give it a separate emphasis.

So, the point is that you can have full engagement in the meeting but, if you do not provide the team an environment/space where they can diverge opinions and ideas, this becomes a shitty meeting by the end and for sure will impact in the future one's engagement.

Find below 2 practices that will help you to make sure you have different opinions and divergent ideas.

The team speaks first. Leaders last.

To resist to the temptation of, as a leader, to start speaking your mind before anyone is sometimes difficult but, the fact is that, as said in the book “21 lessons for the 21st century” by Yuval Harari, power not necessarily means knowledge and, usually people are afraid at some level to disagree with their leaders.

Having this in mind, the advice is to start always from the team's opinion and, if you have several hierarchy levels in the meetings, you can start from the technical to the leadership/management level.

Use nonjudgemental questions

The idea is to “focus on the problem and not on the person” (as I read a long time ago in the best seller “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In” by William Ury).

So, as soon there is a divergent opinion or idea, using questions that seek for data and information but not qualifying in advance the opinion or idea will help you to reach better understanding without imploding the bridge.

4. Generate a real and shareable output

Good meetings have a clear output that can be shared with attendees and even more people. To speak for just speaking, listen and being listened to you can do with your friends/colleagues at the cafe (that is very healthy by the way).

So, the point here is that, if you invite for a meeting you should have in mind what is the output you and the attendees can expect from that, and it can be several types of outputs (not necessarily a report or physical stuff).

Some examples of clear outputs:

• A decision and/or high-level steps of its implementation;
• Clear feedback with, if the case, improvement actions;
• An action plan or schedule;
• A draft of the version of a canvas/vision statement/roadmap;
• A list of best ideas from a brainstorm;
• And so on…

5. Some genuine social interaction

Meetings (and remote meetings as well) are social interaction moments and, aside from having a clear goal/output, we should never reduce it to just work or goal-oriented conversation. We are humans and we are much more than just work.

So, the point here is, use always that is possible (and genuine) some time of your remote meeting for some social chat with everyone.

Especially in these days of quarantines and lockdowns, sometimes it’s good to know how people are doing if they have news to share or just to tell a new funny joke. By the end, it also helps to break the ice (especially if at the beginning of the meeting).

6. Good infrastructure & tools

Finally, in the same way, that the most creative companies, provide inviting meeting/collaboration rooms equipped with boards, flip charts, post-its, drawable walls, snacks, coffee, beer, and so on, you should also try to provide an inviting virtual meeting environment.

This can be partially achieved with some of the points we already discussed here (space for divergent ideas, engagement practices, social interaction space, …) but, good infrastructure and set of tools can make a great difference as well.

Let’s take a look at some points.

Internet and hardware infrastructure

Here in Estonia for example, the internet is usually not a problem at all but, in other countries and depending on the region/location it can be really a challenge. So, the suggestion here is that, for people working from outside of your company building (where you can have the control of the structure), make sure that they have a good internet connection and computer available.

In Brazil, for example, some of the most creative and flexible companies offer support to their employees that work from home in order to have a nice connection and home office.

Here at Mindly, since the internet is not a challenge in Estonia we offer in the other hand a very nice starter pack with a powerful MacBook pro to make sure our people have a great tool for working anywhere.

Communication Tools

There is a lot of good tools in the market that goes from the basic audio and video versions to versions with tons of collaboration features.

You should choose it depending on the level of creativity and collaboration that is expected from your team during the meeting.

I mean, if you’re just going to have a discussion over some data and take decisions, maybe a version with audio, video, and screen sharing features will be great but, maybe you need to execute brainstorms or creating drawings and so on.

Below you have a list of some tools that I did enjoy using.

Google Meet (Basic Audio + Video + Screen Sharing)

I do usually use Google Meet that is very simple to use, reliable, and integrated with Google Calendar as a base tool.

When I say base tool, I mean that I use this in combination with other specific tools.

Here in Mindly we use it for a general remote meetings, especially when it involves outside attendees.

For general internal quick communication, collaboration, and quick calls we use…

Slack (Audio, Video, Screen Sharing, Channels, Chat, Integrations, …)

Slack is really nice tool. You can have quick calls and conference for collaboration, you can share the screen and use highlight pen for calling action to any specific topic, you can create channels for chatting or direct chat, share files and, aside of that has tons of tested integrations with plenty of software development and collaboration tools.

Miro (mind maps and online boards)

Miro is a kind of ultimate online tool for creative meetings.

You can create from mind maps, to several boards withdrawing, post-its, diagrams, canvas, schedules, and so on. This is great rich and creative discussions with demand collaborative creation.

PlanItPoker (planning poker for sprint planning)

I have been using PlanItPoker here at Mindly and I’m pretty happy.

It’s free, simple to use, and has a nice and clean interface that allows you to create rooms for your planning poker sessions, inviting your team members, creating the user stories, voting, and even some data and custom values for the cards.

Trello (Project Management)

Trello is very famous and probably you heard about it already. It’s a very simple and easy interface online tool for creating task boards full of information and improving the visibility and collaboration in your projects.

This also offers several integrations, add-ons, and a paid version that allows custom stuff and more.

GitLab (Code versioning, DevOps, Project Management, …)

Most of the people when hearing Git automatically links to code versioning/repository tool but, the fact is that Gitlab is a complete set of integrated tools that offers stuff for DevOps, issues tracking and, also project management.

The great positive point is that, if you have a software team, this is a complete tool and has lots of integrations as well.

Conclusion

Remote meetings don’t need to be so boring and cold and, if you stop to think, it’s not that hard to improve the remote engagement experience.

At these times of virus, lockdown, quarantine, and isolation it became even more important to act on this (we need to fight back and keep our companies running and our people income) but, even after all this mess is passed, we should get these lessons and practices to make our business better places to work where people have more flexibility and engagement from where they are.

It’s up to us to go out of the stormy clouds stronger and better.

Stay safe!