Many of us are now WFH and gathering as team to feel connected on a human level is more essential than ever during these bumpy times.

Here’s our top tips for running your team gatherings on Zoom, so that you create purposeful and fun experiences your people may even love! 

·      Mute everyone’s mic in the settings – it’s cute to see people’s kids, pets, significant others right now (it’s what’s we’re all dealing with in this new normal, right?) but pets/ kids/ significant others’ background noise is not cute. 

·      Camera on - As people join the call ask everyone to come onto camera to show faces and say hi in person, even if they then need to drop back into audio only if their wifi is weaker. How to run an engaging virtual meeting  

Start the Chat flowing - Ask people to jump into chat to intro themselves as they come on – I usually ask people to say where they’re dialling in from, what they’re drinking and a question that relates to the topic you’re working with in the meeting. This gets the conversation flowing and communicates to everyone that this will be an interactive and engaging session. 

·      Set out some ground rules - including the expectation that people will be fully present throughout the meeting.

·      Check In - Start with asking everyone how they are doing. This can be pithy and focused, it doesn’t need to derail the meeting. You can use a poll, or ask everyone to share a few words, or where they are at on a scale of 1-10 – these are unprecedentedly stressful times and everyone is riding the waves. Let’s not be so task focused that we miss the opportunity for human connection here. 

·      Include breaks – short ones to move your body, change your focal length, grab a drink and a pee. Not enough time to get sucked into emails….

·    Max the interactive - If you’re using break out groups, invite people to ‘report back’ into the main room once you’re done. Give people time to post up their report back and read all the comments.  

• Keep action focused - Encourage people to write their actions/ a-has/ take aways into the chat box. 

·     Wrap up with key takeaways and bring the main themes of your meeting together. 

·      Close out together - Unmute and share words of thanks and goodbye so everyone can hear everyone at the end. Use your mother tongue if people are dialling in from all over the world. Everyone write 1 word in the chat box that reflects their experience or how they feel. 

·      Finish early - No one wants to sit on Zoom calls all day. People will love you for giving them back a bit of space in their day. 

·      Hooray for Replay - Remember to press record and to save the chat if you want a replay of your fantastic meeting! 

Over to YOU: 

Which of these tips will you try? 

You’re getting pretty good with Zoom now, right…. What tips would you add? 

Running your events virtually? 

These tips are facilitation skills applied into a virtual context.

‘Reading the room’ when it’s multiple faces on a screen is really different to being with people in person.

A training session or meeting outline that is tried and tested face-to-face will likely need some rethinking to land well virtually.

Our team at Catalyst Collective are expert facilitators, know how to repurpose face -to-face sessions into engaging online format, and we know how to work the tech.

Do reach out if you’d like a sounding board as you design your virtual team events. Contact us team@catalyst-collective.com or connect with Katy on Linked In.