This is a guest post from one of our current members Val Wright.
Consultant / Speaker / Author
Val is a recognized global leadership and innovation expert who is known as a growth accelerator by top executives at Fortune 1000 companies including Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, The Financial Times and PopCap Games.
Visit her website: https://www.valwrightconsulting.com/ to learn more!
With companies embracing remote work from home roles and hybrid roles, video meetings have become a daily routine for teams worldwide. Whether you’re on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Webex, the quality of your call can make or break communication. The good news? Most video call issues are easy to fix—with the right preparation before, during, and after your meeting.
Whether you’re working remotely or from our Pasadena coworking space with dedicated meeting rooms and soundproof phone booths, these tips will help make your video calls far less painful:
Before
- Start them at 15m past the hour. Send a separate invite for 15m prior to the technology set up, downloading updates, and microphone and camera tests.
- Shut down all other apps. Even Evernote, mail, and web browsers zap your network capacity, switch off your dropbox sync, iCloud uploads, or anything else in your house using significant wifi for the duration of your call (yes that might mean telling your kids to pause the Xbox update!)
- Consider buying your whole team noise-canceling headphones. I can’t believe how good apple AirPods work to detect and remove background noise.
- Post the purpose of the meeting in the invite.
- Make it clear if video is expected, optional, or if it is audio-only.
- If you are sharing slides or using chat features, explain so in the invite, or if dial-in only is acceptable.
Before – Prepare at CTRL Collective
Reserve a soundproof phone booth for clear, private Zoom calls.
Stay powered with the convenient built-in outlet.
Adjust the interior lamp to get the perfect lighting for your meeting.
Add gentle white noise for extra focus, if desired.
During
- If greater than four attendees, use the chat technology to make the social “hello how are you?”’s efficient
- Pose three contextual questions to answer in the chatbox: Answer these questions while we are waiting for others to join. (E.g. What did you think of the new product launch, Who saw the latest episode of the HULU show Lego Masters? Who has been to the Flutter Museum in LA?…get creative but make it inclusive and business-related.)
- Appoint someone to take notes and actions on the call.
- Ask for everyone to mute unless they are talking.
- If you are leading the meeting, have a list of names of all the participants next to you on paper so you can visually check everyone who needs to contribute or participate.
- Ask for participants to comment in the chatbox. For example, if you have just presented a new idea. “How likely do you think it is we have the resources to do this before the end of the year?”, type 1-5 with 5 being highly likely and 1 being no way!) This lets you get quick feedback from attendees without managing the awkwardness of video chat interruptions and stilted conversations.
- If you complete all your agenda items, end the meeting early!
After
- Save meeting notes and actions in a shared space.
- Ask attendees to rate the meeting and ask for ideas for improving the next one. You can use these ratings *Exemplary *Could do better *Energy Zapper*.
I’d love to hear your productivity tips for video calls! Let me know.
Dedicated to growing your business,
Val
P.S. sign up here to get VAL-uable Insights in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/
This is a guest post from one of our current members Val Wright.
Consultant / Speaker / Author
Val is a recognized global leadership and innovation expert who is known as a growth accelerator by top executives at Fortune 1000 companies including Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, The Financial Times and PopCap Games.
Visit her website: https://www.valwrightconsulting.com/ to learn more!