Over the last couple of months, the context of our working relationships has totally changed, and building our leadership and inter-personal skills to match the new context is crucial to sustaining team relationships going forward.

We spoke with Claire Jarvis, a communications expert & former Director of Communications at Siemens, who has recently started her ORSC training. Claire gave us some interesting and useful insights into how to deepen connections within teams when they are no longer able to work together face-to-face. With this, we have put together four simple steps to help you make your meetings more effective.

What is the new context?

Working virtually results in reduced contact with your team. This means that, when you do connect via online meetings, it’s essential that your team is able to communicate effectively so that they can deliver individual and team goals.

How can we make our team meetings more effective?

1. Create a safe environment for your team

Once everyone has joined a virtual meeting, it’s good practice to have a “tech check-in” to make sure the technology is working and everyone is familiar with the features of the platform. 
 
In the current challenging times, your team could be facing feelings of isolation, anxiety, lack of focus and confusion. Be mindful of this and encourage openness. Start every meeting with a check-in question to find out how people are feeling and make sure you hear from everyone. Read the emotional field in the meeting, reflect back some of the points you hear and normalise how members of the team are feeling.
 
Being physically apart from your team means you may lack oversight into how they are working and how they are individually coping with the crisis. Take time to check in with each team member outside of your team meetings to make sure they have the support they need.

2. Design a meeting agreement

Ensure team members are aligned and in the right frame of mind by getting them to design a meeting agreement or team alliance before the meeting starts. Ask them, for example, what sort of atmosphere or culture they want to create, how they will behave towards each other, and what they need from the meeting. You can also create co-responsibility at this stage with questions about what each individual will be accountable for in terms of tasks and responsibilities.
 
Be clear about the purpose of the meeting and limit agenda items to a manageable amount. By keeping virtual meetings focused and as short as possible, you can minimise screen fatigue. 

3. Listen to each voice in your team

You may notice that some people are reluctant to speak up during meetings. One option in this scenario is to create a “virtual constellation”.

For example, if you want to know where all members of your team stand on a topic, you could open a whiteboard in Zoom and write a question in the centre:

e.g. “How confident are we that the campaign will be successful?” 

Instruct your team that they should place their names on the board according to how confident they feel. Placing their name in the centre would reflect full confidence. Placing their name on the edge would reflect no confidence.

Create a sense of safety so that participants can respond honestly. Tell them that this is a “no judgment” zone where everyone’s voices must be heard.  Then ask for volunteers in different parts of the constellation to explain why they put their name where they did and how that feels. 

You could use “breakout rooms” in Zoom or other platforms to connect team members whose names are close together on the board to share their views and discuss what would need to happen to establish full confidence in the campaign. Feedback from the breakout rooms could then be shared with the whole team and actions and intentions agreed.

4. Make sure your meeting ends with clarity

Summarise any action points and clarify ownership of actions at the end of the meeting, ensuring each team member is clear on their part going forward.

Teams need to be flexible over the next few months, as the situation may fluctuate between going back to the office and working virtually. 

This is why we are offering our upcoming courses both virtually, and with an opportunity to retake the course in person at a later date. This will give you the skills you need to thrive as a team whatever your situation is going forward.

Upcoming Courses

ORSC Foundation Virtual Course
ORSC Module 2: Virtual Intelligence: A Roadmap for Change

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