Do you ever find yourself in remote team meetings that take up time without getting too much done? Sometimes these types of meetings can seem more like a collection of people with disparate aims and agendas than a team forum.
Working remotely is a relatively new phenomenon and certainly was made a phenomenon when Covid-19 shut the world down and forced everybody to stay at home. Today, nearly 47 percent of companies have cut down on business travel thanks to video conferencing. Yet collaboration is as important now as it’s ever been and businesses work most efficiently when teams are communicating with efficiency.
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Importance of Understanding Team Roles
Confusion can settle in when remote work takes the place of in-person work. There might have been any number of safeguards and reminders in place to help people stay focused on their individual roles. Even though an MS Teams background can offer an impressive dimension to your meetings, it can’t necessarily define your team members’ roles.
When you’re hosting a meeting, clarity is essential. Sending out an itinenary to the team ahead of time is a way to ensure that everyone knows what will be discussed and what their own contributions will be, if any, and give them time to prepare.
Invite the Right Stakeholders
Research has shown that about 51 percent of employees get invitations to meetings that are irrelevant to them. This equals wasted time and energy that those employees could be doing something more useful or more inspired.
The stakeholders in a remote team meeting are the remote team members. To that end, when meetings are held, use discretion when sending out those invites. If the information isn’t affecting somebody or they aren’t contributing in any way, re-evaluate whether their presence is necessary.
There’s no rule that all team members need to be present. In fact, too many meetings could be eating into time when team members could be making other commitments that would contribute to the team’s mission.
Encourage Engagement
A free Microsoft Teams background could be the start to a meeting that’s teeming with ideas. Remember that you’re catching people at different places in respect to their rhythms and this is one of the signature differences between remote and in-person workplace behavior.
Engagement doesn’t mean just saying a person’s name every so often. It means offering them opportunities to share their ideas. Ice-breakers are among the simplest form of engagement options and a strong way to start the meeting. This could be as simple as a quick whip with a topical, or otherwise relevant, question.
A customize Zoom background can add a powerful dynamic that can resonate with your remote team and perk up those meetings, but the clarity will have to come from the top down. With clarity as the foundation, the meeting can take any tone, run to any reasonable length or have multiple presentations or presenters. In short, you’ll be able to accomplish a lot. Visit a virtual background website today to get the perfect background to match your next team meeting.
