How to Energize Productive Online Board Meetings
Online board meetings require an entirely different level of participation than offline ones and it’s often difficult to discover new ways to get people involved in them. Start by ensuring that your virtual boardroom has reliable video conference capabilities, clear communication protocols and sufficient meeting resources. You can then set up protocols that will guide participants through online meetings and facilitate productive discussions.
Be sure that each item on the agenda is accompanied by an objective for the conversation for example “decide an action item” or “spark new ideas.” This will allow you to move away from the current discussion as soon as you have achieved your goal and avoid overstaying your welcome. In addition, setting a time limit for each discussion point will keep the meeting from dragging on.
Begin with the most important items on your agenda. When you attend board meetings in person, it’s possible to detect body language cues to indicate the members have something important to say. These signals are harder to recognize when meetings are held remotely. Beginning with the most pressing topics will ensure that everyone contributes to discussion and will feel that their time has been well spent.
Use a consensus agenda in order to save time on more controversial discussion topics that might not have the same impact on your business. Everyone can vote on items that are not controversial prior to the meeting gets underway, so you can focus on the most important issues. Consider inviting experts as guests to check over here present short talks or insights that will broaden the board’s perspective and ward away groupthink in the boardroom.