Effective Virtual Conversation Tip #1 - Setting Everyone Up for Success

For the past several weeks I have been doing a weekly blog post over at my Teams365 blog incorporating several Effective Virtual Conversation Tips from the book. I wanted to start sharing these with you here, starting with Effective Virtual Conversation Tip #1 - Setting Everyone Up for Success. Here's what I wrote a few weeks ago at the Teams365 blog:

In late July, my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, will be released. It's the culmination of tips and best practices for leading teams and conversations in the virtual space, a focus of mine since the 1990s, when I was leading teams across countries in South America connected only by radio.

Today's tip is "Setting Everyone Up for Success". Pre-planning in the virtual space can shift a call from being a time-waster to an expedited conversation.

Some things you might want to consider doing in setting your team or group up for success with your virtual call includes:
1. Thinking through any pre-work or pre-reading people should do before they join the call. This can be shared on your intranet, Slack drive or other file sharing service.
2. Having a clear agenda to follow that everyone has fed into. One of the traps of virtual meetings is that people are often bouncing from one meeting to the next. Being proactive with who needs to be on the call (think decision maker or information required) is important as it's often hard to pull a virtual colleague into a meeting last minute.
3. Keeping accountabilities visible. One of the challenges with today's digital world is that we don't always have the same immediate visual cues in front of us,  as we may have had with team work which was co-located. What are the things you can do to keep accountabilities visible for everyone in different locations? Is there a weekly dashboard you send out? A photo which can be put on as a screen saver? Something else to keep things visible.
4. Being vigilant with follow-up. Follow-up and circling back is even more important in the virtual space. What will help with follow-up for your team? What one on one conversations (voice and email) are important to have? What feedback and update mechanisms are in place so peers can also keep each other in the loop.

As you consider "setting everyone up for success" what comes to mind for you? What will set you up for success as well?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | GroupCoachingEssentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

​Connect with us to be the first to know more about launch events around my newest book - Effective Virtual Conversations - coming out soon! Setting your team up for success is one of dozens of topics covered throughout the book. Eight questions you want to ask your team before every meeting is also covered.