Productive Virtual Meetings: Tools, Tips and Best Practices

Open forums are helpful, but they can also wander off topic, leaving some of your team feeling left out as more senior members direct the discussion.

Instead, Shyamli Rathore - a leadership coach and senior moderator with Harvard Business Review - suggests answering six questions:

1. What is the purpose of the meeting?
2. What would a successful outcome look like?
3. Who needs to be in the room to reach that outcome?
4. What do the participants need from you?
5. What do you need from the participants?
6. What is going to be your contribution during the call?

Frameworking the answers to these questions before your meeting can help keep the discussion on task, drive productivity, and improve meeting equity.

For example, if we were hosting a meeting about a new product launch, we’d answer the six questions like this:

1. What is the purpose of the meeting?
   • To align all stakeholders on the goals, timeline, and key deliverables of the product launch.


2. What would a successful outcome look like?
   • Everyone leaves with a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and deadlines.
   • Key risks and dependencies are identified early.
   • The team has a shared vision for success.


3. Who needs to be in the room to reach that outcome?
   • Product Manager
   • Marketing Lead
   • Engineering Lead
   • Sales Representative
   • Customer Success Manager


4. What do the participants need from you?
   • A clear outline of the project scope, objectives, and constraints.
   • Defined roles and responsibilities for each stakeholder.
   • A high-level timeline and key milestones.


5. What do you need from the participants?
   • Commitment to their assigned responsibilities.
   • Honest feedback on potential challenges or gaps.
   • Agreement on the next steps and follow-up actions.


6. What is going to be your contribution during the call?
   • Facilitating the discussion to ensure clarity and alignment.
   • Providing insights into strategic objectives and expected outcomes.
   • Documenting key takeaways and assigning action items.

From there, we can easily create a meeting agenda that looks like this:

Some of the biggest issues affecting meeting productivity come from audio, visual or connection problems.

We’ve all seen those furrowed brows from confused colleagues as they work extra hard to understand what you’re saying due to a fragile connection or poor sound quality.

So, what can you do to fix the problem yourself?

Invest in stable internet

When working from home, ensure that your internet connection is as stable as possible. The experts at Uswitch recommend having a minimum upload speed of 3Mbps per person.

Use Google’s Internet Speed Test to see how fast (or slow) your connection is:

You can do this directly through the search results using Google’s own speed tester:

If your internet is slow, connecting via an Ethernet cable is one way to improve your speed and stability. Alternatively, here are some other things you can do to help support your broadband:

• Close background apps: Check what apps are running in the background of your phone or desktop, these can sap data from your connection.
• Disconnect from additional devices: Any phones, tablets, or other tech that could be draining your speed.
• Upgrade to a more powerful router: Dual-band routers operate on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. These routers allow your meeting to run on 5GHz speeds while deferring all other devices to the 2.4GHz, giving you better speed and a more powerful connection.
• Get a signal booster or range extender: An extender plugs into the wall and increases the range of your connection to include the area it’s located in.
• Move your router closer to your workspace: Your router should ideally be in the line of sight of your devices.

If none of that helps, it may be time to start researching other internet providers. But at least you’ll know you did everything you could. But how do you find the right provider for your needs? The five core elements to review in internet packages are:

• Speeds: Look for the best upload and download speed you can get.
• Data caps: Some providers have caps limiting the amount of data you can use each month - not ideal when you’re taking and managing daily meetings.
• Contract terms: Some internet service providers can tie you into agreements for up to 2 years. However, many firms also offer contract buyouts, so don’t feel like you’re stuck on an existing deal if it’s not working for you.
• Customer service: Do your research on customer review sites like Consumer Reports to see which ISPs are offering great support when you need it. Alternatively, a quicker way to find out can be to search "internet [your city] Reddit" and check out what people are saying in those forums.
• Price: Ensure you know each month what fees and/or taxes are included in the price before agreeing.

Upgrade your Audio-Visual equipment

Upgrading to professional audio and visual devices can also improve productivity in meetings and increase inclusion rates.

Our research found that upgrading your connectivity and virtual meeting hardware are the biggest ways to improve productivity:

“Surprisingly, the simplest and most easily solved issues are still the biggest. Quality of internet connection (48%), quality of audio (32%), and quality of video (28%) were rated significantly higher, as the leading barriers to productivity in meetings.”

Unreliable meeting technology can also cause signal dips making it more difficult for participants to notice physical cues, listen to, and engage with the main points in your session.

Psychological studies have shown that the lack of nonverbal cues in virtual meetings can mean participants need to focus harder on the session, leading to increased feelings of stress, fatigue, and exclusion. The study also found that poor audiovisual connectivity can enhance these issues:

“Technological problems, such as time lag, low resolution, and audio failures, may further limit the richness of nonverbal cues in virtual meetings and make them difficult to perceive.”

Connecting from loud or challenging environments, such as busy co-working spaces or train stations, can hamper audiovisual quality, further increasing the need to put active effort into engagement.

Leaders can challenge these inefficiencies and meeting stresses by leveraging professional-grade audiovisual technology in virtual meetings. High-quality speakers, headphones, and purpose-built video conferencing cameras can all help improve your connection.

Jabra Evolve2 75 headset blocks out the background and noise and keeps the focus on you, while Panacast 20 allows you to meet up in 4K resolution from anywhere.

Provide connection guidance

Two in three meetings are now virtual. But that doesn’t mean everyone has access to the same tech, familiarity with your chosen platform, or confidence using the specific hardware.

Our Hybrid Work Report 2023, shows that over 30% of employees are hesitant to take meetings in the office because they’re less comfortable with the technology. So why should it be any different for virtual catch-ups? Or, as Elizabeth Brochhausen, director of partnerships and experiential marketing at Pandora said recently:

“Often people will just assume that everybody knows what the process is, but without documentation of established processes, things can get really hairy.”

People entering your meeting late due to tech or connection issues can derail your session and cause late participants undue embarrassment. Leaders can nip this in the bud by creating and circulating simple troubleshooting guides ahead of the meeting.

These guides should address common challenges or barriers to connection and provide step-by-step solutions. An even better option would be to create helpful troubleshooting videos for users.

An excellent example below from TechJunkie shows users that you can join Microsoft Teams meetings directly from your inbox or calendar from the invite.

If you’re joining directly from your calendar, just find the occurrence in your calendar and select “Join”. Alternatively, you can open the invite email and choose the option “Click here to join the meeting”.

You can then choose to take the meeting via the dedicated Teams app. From here you can set your camera, microphone, and background settings.

Test your tech

To ensure smooth connectivity and functionality, think about testing your tech before the meeting. You may want to alter that prep time depending on the size of your session.

Good practice for larger sessions like conferences is to run checks a few days before - leaving you enough time to troubleshoot any issues. Check again after any problems have been resolved and once more about an hour before the session.

For smaller sessions, checking an hour to 30 minutes from the session can be enough to weed out any technical demons.

After testing your tech and chosen platform, provide useful guides to others in the meeting on how to do it too — again, short video tutorials would be perfect.

Group creative sessions like new starter onboarding meetings, brainstorming sessions, or team-building events rely on interactive elements and participant engagement.

But inspiring engagement in your team discussions doesn’t have to mean calling on quiet employees to voice their opinions - this can often have the opposite effect.

In fact, Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, states that:

“The biggest mistake you can make as a CEO, manager, etc. is encouraging introverts to act like extroverts instead of acting like their best selves.”

Oftentimes, encouraging introverts to participate in meetings like extroverts can cause embarrassment, stress, and anxiety - especially when it comes to preparing for the next session.

Make the most of sharing opportunities - whiteboards

Something as simple as sketching out ideas on a whiteboard during meetings can boost creativity, drive engagement, and spark better team conversations.

Collaboration experts Atlassian agree, highlighting whiteboards as a powerful tool for team engagement:

“Whiteboarding fosters active participation from team members. It offers a space where they can share ideas and feedback freely. People feel heard when others consider their ideas. Whiteboarding can give them this opportunity.”

But it’s not just brainstorms and ideation sessions that benefit. Visualizing your thought process can help clarify complexity in many different meeting formats. Dr Valeri Colon - a documentation, training, and process expert at Connect Centric - suggests that the interactivity of whiteboards can enhance productivity in virtual meetings like:

• Project planning meetings
• Design and architecture discussions
• Problem-solving meetings
• Retrospectives
• Requirements gathering sessions
• Sprint planning meetings
• Daily stand-ups
• Code review meetings
• Incident response meetings
• Training and knowledge-sharing sessions
• Stakeholder alignment meetings
• Risk assessment sessions

And no — you don’t need to install a massive, high-tech board to get the benefits.

There are video conferencing cameras like Jabra Panacast 50 that come with a smart whiteboard-sharing feature. You tell the system where your whiteboard is, it zooms in, and streams your whiteboard into virtual meetings — even if it’s just a small board. Remote participants can see everything clearly, in real time, as if they were in the room.

Icebreaking introductions

As virtual meetings increase and teams become more geographically spread, the need for fun and engaging introduction tasks increases too.

A great approach to new meetings is to set aside 5 minutes at the start of the session for casual conversations and to build emotional connections. Some strategies and examples of good meeting introductions to help stimulate the conversation are:

• Talk food: “What is everyone having for breakfast/lunch/dinner”
• Weekend plans - who has them? What are they?
• Surprise your team with a stat or fact of the day
• Shoutout instances of great performance
• Highlight recent business wins
• Alternate the meeting host (for recurring sessions)

But, if you need to go deeper or encourage further inter-team conversation (like in brainstorming or team-building sessions), then icebreaker questions can help.

Here are some examples of icebreakers we've taken from Reddit to get brains ticking and tongues wagging:

• What’s a skill or hobby you’ve picked up recently?
• If you could instantly become an expert at something, what would it be?
• Share a fun fact that most people don’t know about you.
• What’s the most memorable place you've visited?
• If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
• Everyone show your animals (or one you would most want to have)
• Would You Rather
• What’s your best story involving a microwave?

Encouraging the introverts

The quieter members of your team probably won’t thank you for singling them out for opinions in a group discussion.

Having said this, you want to be sure you’re creating an inclusive and holistic meeting environment in which everyone’s opinion is heard, and they have a fair seat at the table.

So, how can you improve the inclusivity of your meetings by making them introvert-friendly?

• Collaborate and circulate the agenda: Send the meeting agenda via email or Slack asking for opinions and offering the opportunity for items to be added to the discussion. This fosters inclusivity and gives your team time to prepare.
• Respect anonymity: 74% of employees said they were more likely to give feedback if communication channels were anonymous. Platforms like Blind, Guerrilla Mail, or Deel Engage are great for pre-meeting ideation, as well as driving thought leadership in the session and gaining quality follow-up feedback.
• Create regular opinion sections: A more inclusive way to gain opinions from every attendee is to reserve a section at the end of meetings where everyone talks. Rather than calling on individuals randomly throughout the session. If employees know this section is coming in every discussion they can be better prepared when the time to speak comes.

Additionally, HR experts Insperity suggest leveraging your introverted workers’ natural tendencies before a meeting to allow them to contribute.

• Do they feel more comfortable asking a lot of questions upfront?
• Do they like to take time to ponder before giving you their opinion?
• Do they need extra time to research before discussing an issue at a meeting?
• Do they have a favored process for completing certain tasks?

Zoom fatigue is the feeling of being overwhelmed, stressed, or exhausted as a result of too many video calls.

Recent statistics show that 63% of remote workers are having more meetings online than they would have in the office, with 30% spending 2-3 hours in virtual meetings daily.

Frequent virtual meetings with subpar experiences - both in terms of technology and inclusivity - lead to mental exhaustion and decreased morale. Those statistics also highlighted that 23% of employees rate their Zoom meeting exhaustion as “extremely fatigued.”

It’s clear that Zoom fatigue is a problem, but how can you combat it to ensure your sessions remain thoughtful, engaging, and productive?

• Cancel unnecessary sessions: Remember, before scheduling your meeting, ask yourself “What is the purpose of the meeting?” Only schedule meetings when necessary and focus on shorter sessions (e.g., 30-45 minutes) to help maintain energy and attention.
• Stop for snacks: Build breaks into longer sessions to reduce screen fatigue and allow people to grab something to eat before returning to the room.
• Use Scheduling Tools: Platforms like Doodle, Calendly, or integrated calendar features can help find mutually convenient times - but remember to keep things brief.
• Asynchronous Alternatives: Rather than pulling everyone onto a call, ask yourself “Who do you need to reach the desired outcome?” And record meetings for unavailable colleagues or those in multiple time zones.
• No meeting days: Action a team-wide meeting ban on Fridays (for example). Shopify freed up 322,000 hours from their team calendars by canceling recurring meetings. That’s an extreme example, but ‘Free Fridays’ or no meeting days can work to reduce fatigue.