Aretha Franklin was way ahead of her time with her hit "Who's Zoomin Who." We are all faced with frequent remote meetings. You want to use the collective intelligence in the room. With the enormity of COVID-19 taxes the focus of remote workers in many ways. The pressing concerns include:

• job stability
• health and well-being of ourselves and others
• personal investments
• broader economic outlook
• basic day-to-day supplies
• childcare
• homeschooling

All these realities distract workers. Yet, many organizations need team members to concentrate now more than ever. They need to help others and their entity to weather the pandemic.

Remote Work → Remote Meetings

Many people are new to remote work. They are learning that telecommuting comes with many challenges. These challenges are leading to distraction and miscommunication. It is easy for teams to lose track of who — does what — by when. They often misunderstand who is responsible. A remote work environment lacks the usual visual cues and impromptu reminders about what you are trying to do.

While leading Engineers Canada, I had the privilege of working with talented volunteers from across the country. Online meeting was the standard operating practice. I experienced firsthand the best practices of working remotely. The successful leaders would ensure their committees and working groups marched in lockstep. Kevin Hodgson, a board member from the Northwest Territories, stood out with his exemplary practices. When I asked about his ability, Kevin said “that’s just the way we work in NWT.”

Here are some of the lessons I learned. It will help you and your team stay aligned during these challenging times.

Set Up Your Space

Like parsley in your teeth, a lousy video-call setup is something you will hear about only from people who care about you. However, your lighting, your backdrop, your connection, or your unconscious habits may make your remote meetings less polished than they could be.

Check your lighting and get it right. Consider shining a light or two on your face and some indirect lighting so others can see your expressions. Be deliberate about the background you are showing the world. Might be it distract others? Does it reflect your professional image? Add a carpet if needed, rooms with hardwood floors tend to echo.

Julie Lasky's New York Times article – How to Look Your Best on a Webcam provides some useful insights.

Make Sure Your Technology Works

Understanding remote meetings. They are different from an office meeting. Remote workers must make sure personal tech does not interfere with meeting schedules. Workers need to have:

• log in instructions, links, and passwords at the ready
• headsets and microphone
• stable internet connections

Chairing an online meeting is difficult. It is useful to pre-identify a tech lead and note it on the agenda. They should handle such tasks such as

• someone to call or email if a participant cannot get logged on to the meeting
• managing call volume
• sharing screens
• muting those with background noise
• controlling the screen display
• shares in videoconferences
• sharing of documents and other materials

Security and the Conference Tool

A full set of features for Zoom users are in the Zoom User Guide. Below are some of the basics and tips to keep the security of your next Zoom meeting:

• Password Protect Your Meetings — Prevent unwanted attendees by setting a password for your session. Sign into your Zoom account → "Settings" tab and enable "Require a password when scheduling new meetings." All participants will need the password to join the meeting.
• Authenticate Users — When creating a new event, choose only to allow signed-in users to participate.
• Join before host —Others do not join your meeting before you → "Account Settings."
• Lockdown your meeting — Prevent others from entering if they somehow obtained the meeting ids or access details. Once you start a session, → the "Manage Participants" tab, → "More," and choose to "lock" your meeting as soon as every expected participant has arrived.
• Turn off participant screen sharing — Disable the ability for meeting attendees to share their screens. No-one wants to see material shared by a Zoom bomber. Enable via the "Security" tab in an active session.
• Use a randomly-generated id —Using the same meeting ID for every meeting makes it easy for a prankster to disrupt your online session. So, always choose a randomly generated ID for meetings when you create a new event.
• Use waiting rooms — This feature is useful for interviews or virtual office hours. It also gives hosts greater control over session security.
• Avoid file-sharing — Do not use the file-sharing feature of meetings. Instead, share material using a trusted service such as DropBox or Google Drive.
• Remove nuisance attendees — If you find that someone is disrupting a meeting, you can kick them out under the "Participants" tab. Hover over the name, → "More," and remove them. Under "Settings: Meetings - Basic" tab, ensure you have disabled "Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin."
• "Check for updates" — It is on the top-right of your profile. Make sure you have the latest build, as security issues crop up and patches are deployed, or functions are disabled from time-to-time.

Diligence Is the Key

Remote meetings work requires care.  Teams come together to communicate, plan, and collaborate. The alternate is a slippery slope of working at counter purposes. You want your participants to leave with a feeling of accomplishment and purpose.

Planning is the most crucial step to ensure that your meetings are purposeful. So, send out the agenda several days in advance. Ensure that you list what you expect the meeting to carry out. Supply links to background and thought-provoking materials. The meeting agenda should also list the presenters of facts and recommendations for each item.

Build-in Time for Everyone to Have A Check-In

When team members take part in remote meetings, individuals focus on their specific to-do lists. While this is productive, it also isolates people from each other. Moreover, it saps morale and reduces collaboration.

So, promote the connections individuals need to feel human and be productive. Begin each remote meeting with a meaningful question for discussion. Include an agenda item for this check-in. Outline the time for each participant to respond. Usually, 30 to 60 seconds per person is all that you need. This approach provides team members with an opportunity to:

• let go of some stress and anxiety
• clear the air
• switch their focus to the matters at hand
• get grounded

This slight reduction in time devoted to "work" will not be an issue. Long meetings and too many meetings are a source of employee dissatisfaction.

Keep it Brief — Take Breaks

Research shows that shorter sessions are more focused and have more impact. Avoid "meeting fatigue." Meeting participants start to lose focus and mental acuity after 60 minutes. Yet, 64 percent of meetings last more than an hour. Moreover, 39 percent of all meetings exceed 90 minutes. Take steps to schedule meetings for the best results and best performance from participants.

A simple approach for avoiding meeting fatigue is to schedule meeting content for a maximum of 30 minutes. You may want to block and hour, as online meetings often take 5 minutes to get going.  Schedule the overall meeting for a maximum of 60 minutes and end early.

Brief mental breaks improve performance. So, when you need an extended meeting, take at least a 30-minute break between 90-minute meeting sessions. Participants can stretch their legs, catch up on emails and phone calls, grab a coffee, and in general, rest their minds.

Deactivating and reactivating your goals help you to stay focused. Brief mental breaks will help you stay focused on your task.

Be Intentional with Agendas

A good agenda goes a long way to maximize remote meeting productivity. You need to set out:

• the explicit purpose of the meeting
• what you are trying to do
• how you will deal with the matter
• in what time

There should be total clarity about who handles creating and sending the agenda and the related background information.  Set clear expectations about the time participants need to put aside time to review the materials. You want your participants to arrive fully prepared to do the work.

Use Brainwriting Rather than Brain Storming

According to a growing body of research, a better alternative to this traditional group brainstorming is “brainwriting.” Using this method, people write down their ideas and then everyone comes together to share them verbally in a systematic way. It works very well online. One approach is to post the ideas in a shared Google Doc, with no names attached to them. Then have everyone vote on them. Brainwriting groups generate 20% more ideas and 42% more innovative ideas than those using traditional brainstorming.

Allow Home and Work to Merge

Recognize those team members who are working parents. They may struggle to take care of their children. So, it is crucial to allow for the occasional personal interruption during remote meetings.

Some may not be comfortable asking team members to repeat themselves if a child momentarily pulls their attention. They might pretend to understand their marching orders when, in fact, they do not.

Moreover, blending your work and home life duplicates some of the experience of coming together around the watercooler. This approach creates a space for the human connections that encourages team members to help and support each other. We all are mindfully achieving collective, big-picture goals amidst stressful circumstances.

Remote Meetings → Recap — Recap — Recap

It is crucial to determine the next steps and a roadmap for achieving them. I use a who—does what—by when (WDWBW) framework. This approach serves as a framework for a written recap. Ask someone to capture the notes. It is too hard to lead the meeting online and take complete notes.

Everyone must know:

• who is taking notes
• who is creating and distributing the formal recap

Your WDWBW list sets out the next steps, parties responsible for deliverables and signoffs, and a clear timeline. Be clear about these responsibilities and the process of moving forward. Encourage team members to overcommunicate as a fail-safe.

Supply a Virtual Floor

Just because participants listened quietly during your meeting, does not mean they do not have any questions or interesting points to share. Always open the "virtual floor" for a Q&A session. It is more time-effective than offering them to send questions to you later. Many people might email the same issues and need a follow-up question. Moreover, this open discussion provides everyone with a chance to learn from the opinions, comments, and questions of their colleagues.

Keep Your Office Traditions Alive

Uncertain times and disruption of routines add to anxieties. Look to preserve some of the traditions from your physical workspace. Rituals offer tremendous comfort. They help get people through. It helps to keep a bit of workplace normalcy.  Also, think about something new, like remote happy hours. These are becoming increasingly popular.

Learning to ace the remote meeting now will help your organization. Moreover, it helps your team to adjust to the new normal. The future for both organizations and workers is telecommuting. So, learn to enjoy the benefits and cost-savings.

Closing the Meeting

Closing an online meeting involves one click. It is quick and even abrupt. So, before you close the session, thank everyone for their time and the comments which they have contributed. Provide a copy of the meeting slides, along with any other relevant documents via email or Google Drive to the participants.

Send a Follow-Up Email — Thank You and Ask for Feedback

Sending a thank you email might seem unnecessary, considering you already said thanks a moment earlier. Moreover, your participants will appreciate it. It also supplies an opportunity to ask for feedback.

Ask the following:

• Did the meeting meet your expectations?
• Anything you would like to see in a future meeting?

You may want to add a question that is specific to your meeting topic. However, do not add too many. Keep to three items at the most. By keeping it short, you will receive feedback from more participants.