Love ‘em or hate ‘em? Online meetings and workshops
After a couple of months of everything being online, I was curious to know what other people like and don’t like about their virtual experience. I must have hit a raw nerve. The responses came back thick and fast.
One particular detail surprised me the most.
I asked some clients, colleagues, friends and family two questions:
👎 What’s your biggest beef with virtual/online meetings and workshops?
👍🏽 What’s the thing you enjoy, like, appreciate most about virtual/online meetings and workshops?
55 people responded with 225 comments – many of them detailed. So I asked data whizz, Don Sharples, from Altometer, for help. His analysis unearthed a few surprises.
#1 Exploring new technology was in the top three things people enjoy the most about our online working reality.
“I love that people are exploring new options and technology cause they have to!”
“Learning to do things in a new way and we’re not forced into stifling same-same.”
Some like playing with the visual tools, such as being able to draw and mark up whiteboards together, in real time.
Others appreciate that discussions are recorded. The chair, facilitator – everyone – can focus more on what’s being said and engaging, rather than constantly checking in with the notetaker to see ‘if they got that’. Who wants to take minutes?
Lots of people enjoy the ‘chat’ function of the different online platforms.
“….our comments don’t need to interrupt the speaker….”
“…I enjoy the sideline chats as people can interact without being rude….without talking over the speaker….”
I hope that this joy, and curiosity, with exploring new technology will be sustained.
We don’t know what sort of world may emerge as the rules of varying degrees of lock down around the globe are loosened. But I think we do know that maintaining this exploring mindset, our curiosity, will be key to adapting to it.
Facilitators have a head start in this new reality – we have to be curious. If you aren’t curious, how can you possibly follow the lead of the group you’re working with?
Curiosity is what our best teachers bring out in us. A thirst to explore and learn.
On the days when the gremlins seem like they are taking over every piece of technology we own, it is challenging to remain curious about unfamiliar technology. Going back to bed to crawl under the doona seems like a good option.
This shop sign that I see every other day as I walk into my studio is as a well-placed reminder to remain eager to know and learn something new. Quietly holding its own on a dilapidated fence, at the weedy end of a dead-end lane, as the trains speed by.
Just before you think I see the world like Pollyanna, my respondents had just as many beefs with online meetings and workshops as they did ‘likes’.
They’ll be in my new e-book of illustrations titled Virtual Beefs: and how to fix them.
Please – help me keep to deadline! If you’d like a copy, comment YES below and I’ll send you one – very soon.
If you’ve got a long list of ‘beefs’ with virtual and online meetings and workshops, I can help you make them engaging and productive. Here are three ways I can help:
Coach Chairs – one-off, on-call or over a series of sessions.
Attend a session to observe what could work better and suggest how to do this after the session, with practical tips and strategies.
Facilitate all or part of a session for you.
Comment below and we can have a chat.
See what people say about my #Facilitography Walkshops. Watch here.