Pandemic Reboot! - Virtual Meetings
Suddenly Virtual, Making Remote Meetings Work, by Karin M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen, Wiley 2021
Remember back in the winter of 2020 when we started hearing reports of a virus in China, something faraway about Wuhan and a market. We were still driving to work and meeting in person, face to face with dozens of our colleagues. Later we drank coffee and even enjoyed lunches at the coffee shop downstairs. It was all pretty simple - pull up a chair, lean back, and listen to the Powerpoint presentation. And when we called into a doctor's office, we most likely got an admin first try, someone who could directly source a question and pull up files. After work we walked down to our cars and took a good ride home, thinking back on the day's meetings and random conversations. The news was filled with political drama - Trump, Ted Cruz, Nancy Pelosi - and whatever else grabbed network audience.
But then came March and the picture changed. Very quickly our gym shut down and began broadcasting fitness classes on Vimeo and later Zoom. Even friends became virtual - birthdays, church services, town meetings - all proved that we were capable of adapting, despite the overriding terror of the virus threat. And along the way we began to see and appreciate the power and reach of business conducted virtually. Sure, there were great manufacturing plants running full speed in the midst of all these changes, themselves wondering how far they would have to go to make just enough of the right changes.
So Suddenly Virtual provides some very useful answers. We may have had trouble logging in or remembering names of all the on-line participants, but we were quickly learning that virtual, for now, was going to be the only way. The authors of Suddenly Virtual, Karin Reed and Joseph Allen, saw that the virtual technology we struggled to adopt meant big changes for business. They have prepared for us a good approach to the problems, the challenges, and the pitfalls of running a new way. And in fact they believe that anyone - managers, recruiters, supply chain and manufacturing gurus, can learn to do better virtual meetings.
Their book is practical and inspiring. We particularly like the section describing "How to Extinguish Bad Meeting Habits," including what to do with the perpetually late person, and how to end monologues and keep participation equality. It's easy, they say, "to fall back into bad habits because they are what we are used to!" Funny how the laptop camera captures those bad moments better than it would in a packed auditorium!
To prove that this stuff really works, think a moment on this fact: Joe and Karin, the authors of Suddenly Virtual, have never met in person - ever! Wow! And yet their experience forming the book idea and filling it with examples and end of chapter tools is a solid reflection of their own virtual business experience. The book offers a look into the science of communications, as well as the practical matters of getting the mechanics and the rules right. We think Suddenly Virtual is a solid, professional level guide to a new enterprise tool that will be with us a longggg time.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, patriciaemoody@gmail.com
Engaging Virtual Meetings, openers, games and activities for communication, morale, and trust, by John Chen, Wiley 2021
Tech Republic's Owen Hughes in 10/28/20, estimated that Zoom's daily meeting participants totaled 300M, up from 10M in December 2019. Google Meet stood at 100M, with Microsoft Teams at 115M (an increase of 53% since April 2020).
Vimeo, Zoom, Facetime, Microsoft Teams - all newish methods to somehow keep things running during the pandemic. But as much as these technology miracles are survival aids, they have become more - it will be a slow realization as we progress into yet a different work environment. And author John Chen believes that we will still need to work at running very good virtual meetings. Sweatpants wardrobe choices aside, he offers us some refreshing and quick tricks to make virtual easier, less time-consuming and more powerful. Listen up.
At sixteen chapters plus end material this book offers concept and detail to help check where you are in the process, from preparing and selecting participants, to running a technically perfect screen. Along the way the author covers essential security concerns as well as understanding how to control a meeting remotely - how to mute, unmute and otherwise manage participants and their participation, as well as critical timing. Readers may want to selectively break down this book into the stages they are currently working on because some users start out rough, make their way into workable levels, and then find they plateau at the finer points. Engaging Virtual Meetings can, however, take users through to fine-tuned expert levels, which, considering the possibilities mid and post-pandemic, may in fact be what we will aspire to instead of the commuter-based, bricks and mortar workplace.
Let's assume that your group has conquered the basics of connecting and speaking in a virtual meeting. The next phase might be better and more memorable communication, and building morale and trust remotely. After all, we are isolated in lockdown, and appearances aside, nothing, nothing is the same. Not easy. Chen's Chapter 8, "Activities for Communication, Morale and Trust" is a great starting place. "PowerPoint Karaoke - Improving Improvisation" is a fun improv exercise that requires participants to present slide decks that they have never seen before. Participants will be assigned a random slide deck and they are further instructed to present their slide deck in five minutes. Finally, presenters will be given points for flow, gesture, jargon, credibility, and completion. In his case study drawn from the Northwest Event Show Chen notes that the powerpoint challenge will uncover incredible performers as well as presenters who fall back on simply reading each slide word for word as it appears.
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