Enhancing the meeting experience from Paul Richards

Transformational experiences have been studied for many years, especially in the events industry where consumers regularly pay to attend experiential events. Joseph Pine, the author of The Experience Economy, writes about the process of capturing attention to cultivate a transformative. The highest level of meeting engagement invokes a transformational experience for attendees. While this may seem like an experience reserved for a weekend of inspirational seminars or a retreat, this chapter will encourage you to think about meetings as mini-transformational opportunities.

Focus on the Experience during Online Meetings

Online Meeting Experience Values

As meeting members spend time together, attention and focus are foundational to engagement. Perhaps the easiest way to conceptualize the idea of invoking engagement in an educational setting is a new term, Edutainment. Edutainment is a process of education that uses entertainment to engage audiences to educate them in the process. This magical intersection between education and entertainment is where meeting participants are inspired to make a change in their own lives. As meetings progress, a good host will encourage engagement and may tailor their approach depending on the type of education that is planned. A good meeting host will plan out simple, but engaging points that have the power to edutain. For example, a short quiz with a funny but relevant question can help to “edutain” an audience.

Most meetings will start with passive participation which can naturally evolve into active participation as the meeting progresses. For example, passive meeting engagement may start with a personal notepad in which attendees write down ideas about questions they may want to ask later in the meeting. Active participation involves asking questions about the content. New collaboration tools can push active engagement to the forefront of meetings with whiteboarding and annotation.

The Educational Process

As the educational process in a meeting naturally progresses, a reaction from meeting participants can take multiple forms. A positive reaction from meeting participants involves a feeling of connection and shared vision. Leaders can reinforce a sense of shared vision by the equity of voice inside a team conversation. Another positive reaction is a feeling of inspiration which could lead to an internal commitment to change for the better.

For example, houses of worship may deliver a Sunday service to a large group but afterward break out into smaller groups for spiritual sharing. Inside of these smaller groups meeting attendees can get to know one another better and feel more comfortable opening up. All transformations are personal experiences. Productive meetings can use personalized context to unveil positive reaction opportunities for meeting participants. If a transformation in meeting participants is reached, it will likely include the feeling of achievement and the sharing of aspirations for the future.

This could be described as the “AHA” moment that helps you turn a corner with the help of a new perspective that was shared during the meeting. In an upcoming chapter, you’ll learn how social facilitation can be used to share positive feelings and increase an individual’s responsibility to perform in a group setting.

Online meeting experience stages

While transformations are highly personal experiences, they are shareable. If meetings take place in a comfortable setting and context, personal experiences can have a significant impact on others when shared. Many people may not feel comfortable sharing their personal experiences in large groups. Consider the use of breakout sessions to break larger groups into smaller, more intimate gatherings.

online meeting experience stages

Structure meetings with a distinct beginning, middle, and end to facilitate the possibility of transformation. The beginning of a meeting starts long before everyone gets together for a video conference. The official beginning of a meeting starts with the meeting invitation to all participants. The invitation is your opportunity to entice meeting participants with an exciting agenda and set the tone for the meeting.

Virtual World Cafes

One exercise that’s used in many virtual events is called the “Virtual World Cafe” which breaks large meetings down into smaller groups of four people. The idea is to have one meeting host who can have three people join them in a set number of rounds. The idea is a little bit like speed dating in groups. Every 15 to 20 minutes three meeting attendees are rotated between new break out-groups. The host of each small group is responsible for sharing the most powerful ideas from their previous world cafe experience. This way, new people can meet in small groups, and the best ideas are continually shared from past meetings.

Open Space Collaboration Groups

Another popular collaboration meeting experience is called “Open Space Collaboration” which is an organization of multiple independent meeting spaces that attendees are encouraged to jump between. The idea of having multiple conversations going on at the same time allows participants to join each meeting like a social butterfly or dig into a meeting like a busy bee.

Both collaboration meeting concepts, Virtual World Cafe and Open Space Collaboration, are modeled off of in-person group experiences. As you will already know, reviewing the same weekly or monthly business-related presentation can naturally become boring over time. Trying out new innovative ways to stimulate collaboration is a great way to get groups to use the technology productively. In psychological studies, this is known as the Goldilocks effect.

Gamify it

Many traditionally boring aspects of a business are being reinvented to promote education through entertainment with a process called gamification, a highly effective way to promote active learning through the use of a game. Gamification takes the competitive elements of a play and applies content into a fun activity. For example, large meetings and conferences often utilize live trivia events to promote active learning. Live trivia is a great way to leverage a healthy level of competition during meetings.

Two companies that offer online trivia management systems are Crowdpurr and Kahoot. They can be used to host live voting, quizzes, competitions, and much more. Competition has a motivational influence on people by resetting the way they reference themselves against the larger group. Sales competitions, for example, are a proven tool for motivating sales employees to reach their goals using a reward system.

While gamification and sales competitions may motivate some, Jonah Berger, the author of Nudge, notes that “if not carefully designed, social comparisons can lead people to get disheartened, give up and quit.” The winner-take-all model can motivate people who have a chance of winning, but it can often leave the rest of the pack behind. Tweak your gamification efforts by breaking up groups of people into smaller breakout session meetings. This way, you can moderate and manage comparison sets that employees use to gauge themselves. The focus should be on healthy competition that encourages productive engagement. Bringing together specific sets of people in small groups helps motivate people to work harder without ostracizing anyone for staying at the bottom of the leaderboard. Peer pressure can be a tool used for good, but it needs to be managed.

Social facilitation

Social facilitation helps teams build commitment for shared projects and responsibility for showing up and getting the job done. Berger’s research clearly shows that peers can help motivate each other to work harder. The mere presence of peers can make it harder for someone to give up on a project. Managers can leverage the power of group presence with online communication to maintain social facilitation even with far-flung teams spread around the world.

Use a scorecard during meetings to keep teams accountable while keeping the process light and fun. Custom scorecards can be created for managers who work with their teams on specific projects. Managers can use scorecards with five to ten data points to keep track of team goals and organize progress reports that can be shared with online collaboration platforms.

For example, you may archive your meeting notes in a folder on Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Inside of your meeting notes you can include data from your meeting scorecards and reference historical data for learning purposes. Then, when you share your meeting notes using an online collaboration platform such as Google Chat, Discord, Microsoft Teams, or Slack, the information is already organized and ready for collaboration.

You can also streamline collaboration by organizing meeting notes and sharing information in team communication channels. Collaborating efficiently requires an upfront understanding of who may benefit from the collaborations and who may not. Information like meeting notes and scorecards should be shared with stakeholders’ managers deem essential to the collaboration process.

Once your meeting is coming to an end, it’s ideal to plan a memorable meeting exit. A well-planned “exit strategy” should support or reinforce the goals established by your meeting agenda. The end of the meeting is a great time to give co-workers validation for a job well done. If you have a compelling call to action that you are saving for the end of your presentation, consider revealing it within a specific unified collaboration channel. For example, perhaps you have a blog post that summarizes your thinking on a particular subject you’re meeting about. Consider posting a summary in a Slack channel with a link to the entire blog post right after your meeting. For example: “A summary of our findings will be posted in the ‘blank’ Slack channel. Please feel free to push the conversation forward there if you have additional thoughts over the next couple of days.”

Thinking through your exit strategy is a great way to conclude meetings with purpose. Consider promoting forward-thinking ideas that can be used to summarize your meeting’s purpose and encourage collaboration on priority projects.

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There’s a process in psychology called “priming” that’s helpful in meeting scheduling. Priming is a powerful tool for meeting hosts because it helps to influence the way meeting participants will associate their role in association with the proposed meeting. Research shows that priming can influence someone to walk more slowly by having them read words such as “patient,” “polite,” or “respectful.” So, prime your meeting participants to be excited for an upcoming meeting using words such as “impressive” or “tremendous.” Depending on the type of presentation you’re planning, consider priming your meeting attendees with a catchy title or an associated image attached to the meeting invitation.

The idea behind priming

Take a moment to consider the type of priming that would be helpful for your next meeting. As a meeting host, you want to develop a reputation for scheduling engaging and useful meetings. As a meeting participant, you want to participate in thoughtful engagement that provides everyone value, but you also want to defend your own time from unproductive meetings.

The meeting agenda itself is a tool that can be used to prime attendees for a positive experience. The more time you put into the meeting agenda, the more likely your meeting attendees will come prepared to engage. You can brainstorm useful words by searching on Google. Consider searching for “exciting words” or “engaging words” that you can include helping better define the purpose of your next meeting.

Group Braining Storming

Set Yourself up for Meeting Success

Once you have set the stage for your next meeting it is time to make the magic happen. You have already prepared the agenda and your meeting attendees are aware of everyone who is attending. Depending on the type of meeting that you are hosting, you may want to prep key meeting participants with additional information.

Collaboration meetings are generally the easiest to host because the outcome is essentially based on a team sharing ideas to achieve a common goal. Presentation meetings often require more coordination between key subject matter experts and meeting attendees. Meetings that involve subject matter experts sharing content with audiences of more than twenty benefit from an attentive meeting moderator.

Moderators organize questions from an audience and curate audience engagement without disrupting the presenter’s train of thought. A simple check-in phone call before the meeting is often enough to prime a key meeting attendee for success. You can also post a poll in a relevant collaboration software channel before a meeting to gauge interest from various parties in your organization. A little research can go a long way toward steering your meeting’s agenda and engaging your meeting attendees’ interests.

Engaging large audiences is sometimes easier than small group audiences. Jonah Berger, the author of Invisible Influence, explores how social influence can affect everything from the products people buy to the satisfaction they feel for their jobs. Berger’s research notes that “people don’t think they’re influenced by others… but ninety-nine-point nine percent of all decisions are shaped by others.” Large audiences can be managed carefully using meeting moderation tools to have a positive impact on meeting productivity. For example, large meetings benefit from including questions voiced directly from meeting attendees. Yet, without moderation, most online meetings can be filled with people cutting each other off trying to determine who is supposed to speak next. A good moderator can control the audience’s ability to unmute their microphones using the raise hand feature.

Large audiences can enjoy the benefit of shared online spaces for engagement such as chat rooms and break out collaboration areas where positivity can thrive when properly moderated. An active chat room, for example, can spark creative ideas and encourage passive attendees to engage with the activity.

Facilitate positive engagement

Meeting moderators foster positive audience engagement while deterring potentially negative attention as well. One way to foster positive engagement is to come to the meeting prepared with a list of thought-provoking questions. These questions can be entered into the chat room throughout your meeting to encourage engagement throughout your meeting. Consider creating a list of questions that lead up to a climactic “turning point” question. A turning point question assumes your meeting attendees are familiar with the subject matter. Use a turning point question to apply educational subject matter to a real-world situation that applies context to your specific business.

Turning point questions can also be left open-ended. Open-ended questions are a great way to exit a meeting and leave your attendees thinking. Turning point questions that are funny can have a particularly positive effect. Popular memes are a great source for turning point media that can provoke laughter. Memes add entertainment value to make educational content more memorable. A 2019 study found that 74 percent of people send memes to make people smile or laugh and 53 percent send them to react to something. Your organization should have a collaboration system that can be used for communication before and after important meetings. You can recommend that follow-up discussions occur in specific channels on your communication platform. For example, at the end of your meeting, you can say, “let’s follow this up with your ideas in the “marketing’ channel.”

The Cliffhanger Exit

One strategy that encourages productivity after a meeting is a cliffhanger exit. What will surprise us most about this topic at next week’s meeting? There is no need to over-think your meeting exit. The Invisible Influence notes that “mere exposure [to other people] increases liking.” The more you meet with your peers, the stronger your relationships will become. The longer-term your relationship-building efforts are, the less important it is to prepare an amazing exit.

Instead, see if you can develop an inside joke with your team. Great running jokes are open-ended, and they can build team relationships with a simple connection point. Studies show that the more people see something, the more they will like it and familiarity leads to liking. Therefore, simply “Showing Face” and presenting your ideas on any subject should always be considered a benefit for relationship-building. Time is money to many people but perhaps, more importantly, time is an experience that can be shared.

Joseph Pine, the author of the Experience Economy, dissects the difference between “time well saved” and “time well spent” to explore the value of shared experiences. Time well saved, is generally associated with hiring someone to perform a service that takes a specialist less time than it would the person hiring them. Time well spent, is associated with more valuable experiences such as team building, events, and vacations that are shared with others. For example, time well saved could be helping someone through a tech support issue. Time well spent, would be collaborating on new use cases for technology that can be applied to business and building a lasting relationship with a coworker in the process.

An interesting aspect of social influence is the ability meeting hosts have to encourage people to perform better as they rally behind an idea. Norman Triplett, the scientist credited with the birth of social psychology, proved this theory by studying competitive cycling.

Triplett’s study, which came out in the 1800s, proved that cyclists cycled faster when they raced against a group of other people. His phenomenon is called “social facilitation” and it explains why people perform better in the presence of others. Applying social facilitation to meeting productivity requires an understanding of social influence. It turns out that the presence of others can have a positive or negative effect on performance depending on how complex the task is.

In the 1920s, Stanford professor Bob Zajonc proved that simple tasks like riding a bike generally see improved performance in the presence of others. But, more complex tasks like trigonometry performed in the presence of others will, on average, decrease performance.

The Goldilocks Effect

It is possible to increase your influence by simply meeting with people more frequently. The Goldilocks effect may explain why repeated exposure to other people and ideas can increase our affection for them. Repeated exposure to something can help people become more familiar with it. In his book the Invisible Influence, Jonah Berger explains how the Goldilocks effect often follows an “inverted U-shape trajectory.” This explains why something new is at first foreign, and therefore people initially feel negative toward it. Then, after increased exposure, when things become more familiar, people react positively. At the end of the U-shaped curve, if you have too much exposure to one thing, you may feel bored and again feel negatively toward it. This is the normal Goldilocks-inverted, U-shaped trajectory of affection.

The popular “Death by PowerPoint” saying sums up how many people feel about standard business meetings. Meetings with fresh ideas are more likely to engage an audience. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to keep your meeting content fresh, the longer you continue to meet with the same audience over time, or you risk losing the interest of your meeting participants.

Extending the Goldilocks Effect

Goldilocks Extension

Think about the beginning stages of the Goldilocks effect of a new boss. At first, your new boss is unfamiliar to you and your experience is mediocre at best. Over time, your boss earns your trust and becomes a leader you look up to. It’s possible for great leaders to “buck the trend” and continue to inspire others over a long and successful career. I call this the Goldilocks Extension Process.

Conclusion

Passion and creativity are tools humans can use to extend the Goldilocks effect and plateau in a productive space. Human relationships are dynamic and online communications give us the ability to easily renew our relationships and collaborate to build deeper connections that can last a lifetime. When teams can overcome challenges together, their relationships grow stronger in a positive way. Extending the goldilocks plateau is when relationships turn in career partnerships that can turn into legacies of teamwork.

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While video conferencing makes remote communication more realistic, tried and true communication practices can help you get the most out of any online communication effort. One strategy for team communication is called “Equity of Voice,” in which each member of a meeting is encouraged to have an equal amount of time to speak. Barry Moline, the author of Connect, says the secret to powerful connections comes down to four basic communications strategies.

#1: Share personal stories

Sharing personal stories helps individual team members better understand their peers. Personal stories foster the relationship-building process which is foundational to team communication. Spend a few minutes at the beginning of each meeting to help team members build relationships by sharing personal stories. Also, weave personal stories and anecdotes into key points in the meeting where helpful; they can often help reinforce key messages and build retention.

#2: Equity of voice

Achieving equity of voice requires a conscious effort to give each meeting member an equal opportunity to speak during the meeting. For example, in a five-person meeting, each member of the team would speak one-fifth of the time and listen four-fifths of the time. The listening side of the equity of voice is what makes it effective.

#3: Assume positive intent

To help ensure productive meetings, learn how to assume positive intent from others. This assumption helps set the meeting up for success by focusing on what you truly have control over — yourself. Too often, the “not invented here” barrier and the “transfer barrier” prevent meeting attendees from productive collaboration. Avoid these barriers by encouraging the assumption of positive intent which builds a bridge for communication that might not come naturally.

#4: Value persistence

Anything worthwhile takes time, dedication, and persistence. Once managers identify collaboration projects with significant value to the organization, they need to keep a close eye on team progress and follow-through. Some team members may lose focus, skip important meetings, or come to meetings unprepared. Managers can help by identifying people who can serve as collaboration project leaders. In an upcoming chapter, managers will learn how to use social facilitation to increase productivity and accountability to help employees effectively collaborate on projects.

equilibrium of voice

Equilibrium of Voice

Meeting leaders may embrace a new idea I call “Equilibrium of Voice” to push collaboration projects in a positive direction. Equilibrium of voice is a communication strategy that attempts to maximize meeting performance based on goals set in a meeting agenda. A meeting with a perfect equilibrium of voice optimizes the most relevant speakers of a group based on the established agenda and the participants’ roles in the overall group. It’s almost impossible for meetings to achieve equilibrium of voice without a clear agenda.

Equity of voice can be ideal for team collaboration where an agenda is in the process of being created and individual roles have yet to be defined. During the early stages of collaboration projects, everyone needs to be heard especially during crucial team-building exercises. But once a team has established an agenda, subsequent meetings will benefit from an equilibrium of voice that offers subject matter experts additional focus based on the agreed-upon agenda.

How to get there

Teams can leverage the equilibrium of voice by assuming all team members have positive intent. For example, a thoughtful question may only take a minute to ask but reviewing potential solutions may take a specific team member the majority of a meeting to work through potential answers. Similarly, achieve equilibrium of voice in a webinar-style presentation by offering subject matter experts time to present their ideas before asking questions. Meeting participants can ask questions and receive feedback through the methods decided on the meeting agenda. Meeting hosts should decide ahead of time how to accommodate meeting participant questions and feedback. Subject matter experts are resources that teams rely on to remain informed about subjects they don’t have the time to pursue on their own. Meeting leaders need to remember that subject matter experts are an essential element of collaboration.

Create a detailed agenda

Another way to achieve equilibrium of voice is to establish team member roles and align those roles inside of a detailed meeting agenda. Meeting hosts can increase productivity by structuring an agenda that helps all parties understand the roles of team members who have been invited to the meeting. A good meeting host aims to achieve equilibrium of voice between all meeting participants so that everyone can gain the most value out of the meeting.

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Four strategies for hosting productive online meetings from Paul Richards

#1: Are you prepared for the meeting?

Are you prepared for the Meeting

The first strategy for hosting productive online meetings is simply preparation. Being prepared is perhaps the most powerful strategy for hosting productive meetings. Preparation enables you to come to the meeting confident in your ability to communicate with the online meeting tools available. As a meeting host, you can show all attendees that you’re present and paying attention simply by turning on your video camera. The concept of “presence” is used throughout online communications to bring remote teams together. Many people feel uncomfortable on camera yet overcoming this fear as a leader allows you to lead by example.

Why is the use of video so important to hosting productive online meetings? Ninety-three percent of communication is non-verbal, so naturally promoting the use of video cameras during your meetings will increase your communication effectiveness and participant engagement. As an effective meeting host, you need to be mindful of participant concerns about online meeting technology.

THE CONCEPT OF “PRESENCE”

THE CONCEPT OF “PRESENCE”

Confronting and overcoming any fears you may have using online communication tools is generally the first step you can take toward hosting a productive online meeting. As culture shifts, meeting online will become more commonplace and natural for everyday communications. In a post-COVID world, online meetings have become the norm, replacing in-person meetings by necessity.

In the meantime, meetings with friends and family members online is a great way to help increase your comfort level with technology. Learning to overcome any preconceived notions of discomfort isn’t easy for people who have never worked on a distributed team. The first step toward hosting a productive online meeting is breaking the ice and making sure everyone in the meeting is comfortable and ready to proceed in a meaningful discussion.

Test meetings are another great way for managers to encourage employees to gain familiarity and comfort with online meeting platforms. Fun video backgrounds and “Touch up my appearance” features help users become more comfortable with their on-camera appearance. A simple tip for looking more professional is to record a quick video on your preferred meeting platform and watch it to short make adjustments as needed. Lighting, customized backgrounds, and an uncluttered setting can help boost your comfort level.

#2: Create consistency around meetings

Consistency of Online Meetings

As with any meeting, online meetings are more productive if you stick to a consistent schedule. Creating a consistent meeting schedule is a second strategy for hosting more productive meetings. As regularly scheduled meetings evolve, each member of the team can adapt and find their unique role within the meeting. It’s important for meeting hosts to arrive at the meeting ahead of time. Think of an online meeting like a gathering of friends at a restaurant. If you arranged the gathering or made the reservation, it’s always a good idea to arrive early, ensure a table is ready, and check-in with friends who have arrived early as well. Use the pre-meeting time as a chance to speak with other early arrivals. Teams thrive when professionalism and punctuality are respected at the start.

If you’re scheduling a meeting with a new group of people, do your best to set a positive tone for group collaboration. Starting on a high note will help ensure the productivity of future meetings. People look to a meeting host to take responsibility for moving the meeting forward and facilitating input and active participation. It’s the host’s job to decide when the meeting should start, after a few minutes for casual conversation. If an attendee dominates the conversation, the meeting host may need to intervene to get the group back on track. One discrete way to refocus the meeting is to use a private chat message. Another tactic is to prepare transition or segue questions that can be shared during key points in the conversation.

#3: Create and circulate a meeting agenda and notes

CREATE AND CIRCULATE A MEETING AGENDA AND NOTES

Meetings with a consistent schedule benefit greatly from an established agenda and meeting notes. If someone veers off, the meeting host or co-host can refer back to the meeting agenda. It’s commonplace for groups to table or sideline conversation on an issue that goes too far from the intended meeting goal.

Productive meetings have agendas that are distributed in advance and frequently use a shared document for recording meeting notes. If a productive conversation starts to derail the original agenda, a host can make note of the information and table the conversation for review at the next meeting. It’s helpful to share meeting notes in an organized folder on a shared drive that all meeting members have access to. Also, posting the notes in a collaboration channel that all members of the meeting are a part of is a great way to keep projects moving forward.

#4: Learn to listen

Learn to Listen During Meetings

Learning how to be a good listener is another key to hosting productive meetings. Hosts who do most of the talking need to remember to take a pause, breathe, and listen. A good meeting host will stop and ask for input from other meeting attendees. Transitioning from speaking mode to listening mode is also important for all meeting attendees. Yet, a study from Psychology Today finds that only 10 percent of people actively listen during most conversations (Osten, 2016). Sometimes the most important thing you can do is listen.

Listening to and engaging with other meeting participants respectfully and thoughtfully is important. Close listening also can enable you to crowdsource new ideas because we learn from others’ experiences. Effective leaders understand the importance of good listening and they enjoy it. Even if you consider yourself the “teacher” in your group, encourage others to interpret and distill the information they’ve absorbed and shared it during a meeting.

Bonus: Try a PechaKucha Presentation

Looking for a little inspiration? Try hosting a PechaKucha presentation. PechaKucha, which means “chit-chat” in Japanese, is a way of presenting a story in just 400 seconds with 20 images. Each image receives 20 seconds during the nearly seven-minute presentation. The idea behind PechaKucha is to present critical information as quickly as possible to keep audiences engaged in a storytelling process that they can easily understand.

The PechaKucha presentation format offers a clear beginning, middle, and end to the story. Because each slide is given exactly 20 seconds, the audience knows exactly where they are in the story. This presentation style offers context on presentation length for potentially antsy audiences. PechaKucha imposes order on storytelling and gives the audience a timeline to reference.

While PechaKucha may not be the right choice for every meeting, it demonstrates the power of order in a presentation setting. Besides, an agenda can impose an agreed-upon order that will help meetings stay on track and remain productive. In the next chapter, you’ll learn about meeting etiquette and the importance of equity of voice.

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So, how can you prevent employees from spending hours in unproductive meetings? More than likely, most of these meetings should never have been scheduled in the first place. It’s practical de rigueur for teams to collaborate at every turn. Frequently, individuals realize only after the fact, that they’ve wasted valuable time in unproductive meetings with no agenda, action items, or agreed-upon deliverables. A solid agenda is one key to reducing the number of unproductive meetings employees are involved with. 

Disciplined Collaboration is Key

Morten Hanser, the author of Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results, promotes what he calls “disciplined collaboration” and describes four types of barriers to collaboration. 

First, Hanser identifies the “not invented here” barrier which describes people who are unwilling to reach out to others. Second, the “hoarding barrier” is where people are simply unwilling to help others. Third, is what’s known as the “searching barrier” in which people are unable to find the experts or information they are searching for. Finally, the “transfer barrier” is where people are unwilling to work with those they don’t know. 

According to a recent study, employees spend almost 31 hours each month in unproductive meetings (HubSpot, 2014). 

Good managers should do research to determine when the barriers to effective collaboration are too high for the successful completion of a project. When managers suggest that small groups of subject matter experts collaborate, they should consider the three steps of disciplined collaboration Hanser writes about in Collaboration. 

The three steps are:

1. Evaluate opportunities for collaboration
2. Spot barriers to collaboration
3. Tailor collaboration solutions

Good managers help their teams identify opportunities for collaboration. Managers need to mentor their teams to help them gain a working knowledge of how to effectively use available collaboration tools to tailor custom collaboration solutions which current employee workflows and whether they can be optimized. 

 

While there are many collaboration suites and tools available today, none come with a custom execution plan that’s tailored to your specific business needs. Hanser rightly points out that “the solution is not to get people to collaborate more, but to get the right people to collaborate on the right projects.” This is a process that requires guidance and management to focus on the progress of a specific group within the company. 

Barriers to Collaboration

Most internal collaborations can benefit from management matchmaking. Managers spot opportunities for collaboration, identify barriers and facilitate introductions by using appropriate communication channels, such as Slack, Teams, or other internal platforms. The match-making process works well for large companies with managers who have P&L responsibility and are incented for collaborations that deliver actionable results. Beware, setting up too many collaboration channels can become overwhelming and counterproductive. In an upcoming chapter, you’ll learn how to optimize communications channels and head off potential issues. 

Businesses can benefit from collaboration with external partners as well. External business partnerships are an effective tool for business development, but they are generally more difficult to establish than internal collaboration projects. Some business-to-business (B2B) partnerships are beneficial. For example, one business specializes in software and the other specializes in hardware. If both businesses recognize their efforts are complementary, a mutually beneficial partnership can be formed.

Business Collaboration Benefits

When seeking a B2B partnership, it’s important to start by cultivating a personal relationship with a contact inside the prospective business you wish to work with. These contacts are usually found on the business development or marketing teams of the companies with which you wish to partner. LinkedIn and other professional networks are valuable resources for connecting with potential business development and marketing contacts. When you choose potential companies to partner with, research the company’s core values and make sure they align with your firm’s values and mission. Look for ways that you can help one another for a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Whenever two businesses decide to partner, it’s important to clearly define roles and responsibilities. During the early stages of negotiations, it’s okay to keep things informal, as you progress, look for opportunities to better define the responsibilities on both sides of the partnership. Then, draw up an agreement that clarifies roles and responsibilities in writing. In today’s quickly changing global business world, external business partnerships and alliances have become one of the most important tools to maintain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

It’s easy to overstate the benefits of collaboration. Managers should only encourage collaboration when there’s a high probability of productive value. Do give teams the freedom to manage the tools and channels that best suit their needs within reason. Managers also need to watch out for the perils of “over-collaboration” where teams underestimate the opportunity costs of collaboration. An opportunity cost is essentially the loss of potential gains that you might have derived from alternative projects. After all, online collaboration is a means to an end, and that end is increased productivity. Promoting disciplined collaboration can help leaders determine whether projects that are heavy on collaboration are effective for their organization. This vision will help leaders identify potential barriers to team collaboration and help them propose solutions to remove those barriers. 

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Online Communications Fundamental Ideas

Suffice to say, communications have changed dramatically in the 21st century. The smartphone has made instantaneous access to information commonplace and small internet-connected devices such as tablets have put instant messaging, voice, video, and data access into the hands of millions in a relatively short period. Communications have evolved rapidly but with so many innovations happening simultaneously, there are few clear guidelines on how individuals and teams can best use these technologies to become more productive. At the same time, we have experienced a cultural shift, the world of work is adapting to deliver flexible, user-friendly communications services.

Daniel Pink, the author of To Sell Is Human, has uncovered eye-opening research that can help us to better understand the transformations happening in the modern workplace. Pink’s research shows that on average, 40 percent of most workers’ time is spent “persuading, convincing, and influencing others.” Pink’s first-of-its-kind research shows that modern workers have been asked to develop skills that cross traditional departmental boundaries to increase productivity. Pink argues that a “broad rethinking of sales as we know it” can help explain the paradigm shift in modern communication. Pink goes on to note that while only one in nine jobs in the United States are in direct sales, the other eight in nine jobs involve what he describes as “non-sales selling” (Pink, 2019).

Culture Shifts Toward Online Communications

Collaboration between multiple business units both inside and outside of organizations is key to this modern workforce transformation. Pink notes two fast-growing industries, education, and medicine, are deeply involved in “moving people.” These industries have renamed entire sectors, i.e., “telehealth” and “distance learning” in support of this growing movement. Modern communications technology has helped facilitate and speed these changes.

Telehealth is the fastest growing area of the healthcare system, according to the American Medical Association (AMA) (AMA, 2019). In the field of education, a study by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), published before the COVID-19 outbreak reports that distance learning had been growing every year for 16 years (OLC, 2018). After COVID-19, educators from all walks of life and generations have had to reinvent and reimagine their educational processes to adapt to some form of distance learning using online communication tools.

Telehealth and Education Transformed

Both of these industries rely heavily on effective communication. When communication between multiple business units is essential, online communications become the foundation that connects distributed teams whether they’re located across the hall or the globe. These same communications tools have allowed the education and healthcare sectors to deliver their services remotely over the internet. This dynamic, in turn, has enabled them to find new emerging segments within their industries allowing their teams to build ancillary services into their business model that did not exist previously.
For example, doctors can save patients the hassle of coming into the office with simple follow up visits that can be conducted over a video conference. These new emerging segments help make their organizations more profitable and diversified. The virtualization of healthcare and educational services has increased the number of services these organizations can offer and therefore the number of people they can serve. As a result, each of these industries is now able to generate thousands of new jobs every year.

Other industry effected

How many more industries will be transformed by online communications technology? Yet another example is how the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the trillion-dollar event planning industry to move completely online. My book The Virtual Ticket (2020) reviews the transformation of the events industry that was forced to postpone or cancel in-person events as a result of COVID-19. The entire events sector continues to rethink its role and go-to-market strategies – it must adapt in light of the pandemic.
As event managers attempt to sell virtual tickets, their events can become even more profitable and diversified online. Emerging opportunities include personalized health and wellness, as instructors, coaches, and other providers can go all-in on video communications. How about an online yoga class with a celebrity? A writing course with a leading author? Or, a cake decorating class with a pastry chef? Providers like MasterClass were already in the market with virtual offerings before the pandemic hit. What’s changing now is how it’s not just about established organizations; people everywhere are uncovering the power of video communications. Consequently, it’s becoming the norm to be searching for that “secret sauce” and unique value-add that communications technologies can help them deliver.

Enhancing Online Communications

Online tools can help enhance the way we communicate when we apply traditional communication principles to the modern meeting. Even though the way humans communicate today is drastically different from the way humans communicated even just a decade ago, demonstrating a robust mission, cultivating mutual respect, and authentic communication remain the keys to success. Online communication technologies allow you to extend the reach of your organization’s communications and strengthen your offerings. So, amid seismic and rapid technological changes, it’s worth remembering that ongoing, effective communication and relationship-building remain the linchpins of business success.

Conclusion

Taking this idea, a step further, Joseph Pine, the author of The Experience Economy argues that consumers value goods and services more when businesses design specific experiences that accompany the goods and services they’re promoting and selling. In Chapter 11, we’ll explore the process of repositioning your unique sales value through productive online meetings that enhance your customers’ experience with your product or service. There are simple steps that you can take meeting attendees through to have more meaningful conversations and thought-provoking dialogue on your subject matter. So, look to the latter part of the book for guidance on this.
Let’s get started…in the next section, you’ll learn about the most important feature sets available on Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Facebook Rooms. As you learn the intricacies of each video communication solution, think about your aspirations for communications. Think about the tools and how you can apply them to the unique needs of your business.

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Some organizations are just starting to realize that professional development and training will be necessary for their organizations to effectively use the tools that are available today. Cloud-based communications solutions have been able to quickly scale to support large user bases with their SaaS business models. Cloud-computing services from Microsoft, Google, and Oracle (among others) allow SaaS businesses such as Zoom to grow at record speeds. But as great as Microsft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom are, there is no single online communications solution that comes with a custom-tailored plan for individuals and businesses to implement for their unique organizations.

That is why I wrote The Online Meeting Survival Guide. The book is organized into three logical parts. Part one is all about setting the stage and identifying the opportunities available for individuals and businesses using online communications. Part two is a technical review designed to familiarize readers with the top communications solutions that most modern workers will encounter including Google Meet, Facebook Rooms, Microsoft Teams, Skype and Zoom. Part three is all about productivity and this is perhaps the most interesting area for those looking to discover new innovations and communications skills. It is here that the book draws upon Joseph Pine’s “Experience Economy,” Jonah Berger’s “Invisible Influence,” Morten Hansen’s “Collaboration!,” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” to apply the research of these top business authors, sharing their insights.

This book is 100% free!

This is a book all about collaboration and to that end, I have decided to make the digital version of this book 100% free. In this way, the book itself is a collaboration project. Collaboration at scale is an interesting innovation discussed in the book, allowing businesses to crowdsource ideas and exchange thoughts without physical limitations. In exchange for this book, I hope many readers will feel compelled to collaborate with others on the ideas inside. Perhaps, you decide to share the book with a friend, or post an excerpt from the book in an upcoming blog that you are writing. You have my blessing to share and  However you decided to collaborate online, I hope that this book offers some insights into better online communications for you.

Download the book free here: https://huddlecamhd.com/online-meetings

An Upcoming Event

Instead of a big fancy book launch, our team here at HuddleCamHD decided to take things further. We went out and asked some of the authors whose research has been applied The Online Meeting Survival Guide if they would be willing to host a full day of professional development. I am happy to announce that these efforts have turned into an event we are calling The Presence Summit, where Joseph Pine the author of The Experience Economy will provide the keynote address.

The Online Course

For those interested in taking their learning even further an online course has been recorded and published on HuddleCamHD’s YouTube Channel. This means that you can download the book, take an online course, and immediately get started on professional development for becoming a better online communicator.

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