How many Zoom meetings have you attended in the past two weeks?
If I had to guess, probably more than you ever have before.
As we learn to work virtually, many people find it provides a new set of challenges. The most common problems are: 1) participants who multi-task; 2) some participants don’t participate; and 3) you’re not sure how to build new skills so that it’s more than a conference call.
Yet, what most of us need is to find a way to work virtually that is much more like the way we work when we are together.
I was fortunate to be mentored by Corinne Miller who is a thought leader in the field of virtual communication.
The most important concept Corinne taught me is virtual communication requires engaging the five senses as often as possible. Keeping this in mind has helped me create better approaches to virtual communication over the years.
In essence, various virtual platforms, such as Zoom, have engagement options including chat boxes, polling, white boards and breakout groups. The skills involved in developing virtual com-munication capabilities involve optimizing the use of the various engagement options much more frequently than you might traditionally consider.
As you build these skills moving forward:
• Become familiar with each engagement option of your virtual platform.
• Lay out your agendas for a virtual session to include an engagement process for each topic.
• Use a variety of approaches to keep your participants engaged.
If you have ideas and tips for virtual communication, please share them on LinkedIn here. If you’d like to learn more about optimizing virtual communication, please stay tuned for a virtual communication workshop coming later in April.