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Workplaces have experienced a
Workplaces have experienced a huge shift as meeting attendees switched from rushing between conference rooms to rushing to find the right Zoom link.
And with the ever-mutating virus horror, virtual meetings aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
To help guide the
To help guide the meeting feedback solicitation process, consider these potential questions:
- How helpful are our team meetings?
- What is working well and not so well?
- How long should our meetings be?
- How often should we meet?
- Would you benefit from days or time blocks with no meetings?
- If you were to lead the meeting, what would you do differently?
Here are some practices
Here are some practices for making virtual meetings more effective and less fatiguing:
- Cancel unnecessary meetings and make necessary meetings shorter.
- Assign different roles to attendees when it makes sense, such as facilitator, notetaker, or timekeeper.
- Use breakout rooms for problem-solving, discussions, and social interactions.
- Build-in breaks during long meetings and in between back-to-back meetings.
- Implement meeting-free time blocks or days.
- Moderate and facilitate virtual meetings more actively.
- Turn off “self-view,” on your meeting platform and make camera use optional.
There is no one-size-fits-all
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to reducing virtual meeting fatigue.
Be willing to adapt and grow.
Experiment with different meeting strategies or platforms.
While navigating a paradox of sometimes contradictory preferences, you can still make a difference. Find out what matters to your people and then deliver.
There’s no universal solution
There’s no universal solution for the preference paradox.
Virtual meeting preferences signal the need for a tailored response from leaders.
Don’t assume that your preferences are the same as your team’s.
For more effective and less fatiguing meetings, you can simply ask for feedback from meeting attendees.
The virtual context adds
The virtual context adds layers of complexity for both meeting leaders and attendees.
We aren’t used to the unnatural lack of nonverbal cues, prolonged eye contact, or overload of faces to process on the screen.
Seeing our faces as we talk or listen and the associated hyper awareness of how we appear or emote is stressful.
Collecting feedback on your
Collecting feedback on your meetings is a good practice for holding effective meetings.
This will help gather important feedback to lead future meetings and facilitate communication with employees.
Start by facilitating conversations about what works and what doesn’t for the individuals or groups you meet with.
By asking employees to think critically about their meetings and contribute to their success, you may spark more engagement and investment in your meetings as well.
Next, experiment and change
Next, experiment and change things up based on what you learn.
It’s important to recognize that you won’t be able to accommodate everyone’s preferences.
So, mix it up: Consider catering to some team members’ preferences one month and others’ the following month.
Make accommodations that ultimately benefit the entire team in some way or another
The effort required to
The effort required to process all of these stimuli while simultaneously thinking and communicating is fatiguing.
Although strategies to reduce “Zoom fatigue” like taking screen breaks or switching to a phone call or emails may be helpful, they do not address the nature of virtual meetings themselves.
People feel fatigued and drained during and after their virtual meetings — more than in-person meetings.
Preference paradoxDifferent people have
Preference paradox
Different people have different virtual meeting preferences, so some people’s preferences contradict those of their colleagues.
For some employees, virtual meetings are more fatiguing than those conducted in person because there are fewer social cues, whereas others appreciate the more detached meeting style.
What’s the best path forward given attendees’ varied preferences?
