How to Encourage Participation During Virtual Meetings

shared by: Nugroho J. Setiadi, PhD

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It’s hard to get people to pay attention in meetings when everyone’s in the same room — let alone if they’re all calling in from home. How can you get people to actually participate in a virtual meeting? The key is to create structured opportunities for attendees to engage. Do something in the first 60 seconds to help participants experience the problem you want them to solve. For example, you might share statistics or anecdotes that dramatize the topic. Then assign people to groups of two or three and give them a very limited time frame to take on a highly structured and brief task. Be sure to give them a medium with which to communicate, like a Slack channel. If you’re on a virtual meeting platform that allows for breakout groups, use them liberally. Then ask the teams to report back. Never go longer than five to 10 minutes without giving the group another problem to solve. The key is to set and sustain an expectation of meaningful involvement. Otherwise, your participants will retreat into an observer role, and you’ll have to work extra hard to bring them back.
This tip is adapted from How to Get People to Actually Participate in Virtual Meetings,” by Justin Hale and Joseph Grenny

 

Source:  Hale, J., & Grenny, J.  (2020). How to Get People to Actually Participate in Virtual Meetings. Harvard Business Review.  From: https://hbr.org/2020/03/how-to-get-people-to-actually-participate-in-virtual-meetings?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs . Retrieved on Mar 17, 2020, 3:36 PM

Nugroho J. Setiadi, PhD
  1. Fatah Panji Firmansyah (2001579780) In my opinion the thing that can be done to Encourage Participation During Virtual Meetings is the point of conducting two-way communication because if only the host is speaking then it will make participants bored and uninterested. I agree in the article recommending to make some groups and then give assignments for example to solve existing cases and there will be discussion sessions as well.

  2. Monica Vania Stephanie (2001590796). I agree with this article because we as a student when offline class become online class. We will get bored easily and we don't focus on the lesson. So the solution from the case is true, just give some exercise then the student will answer it. After the student answer give some discussion room, to discuss the answer.

  3. Irfan Arsyad - (2001583752) I agree with this article that there are so many things we can do to encourage participation during an online meeting and It's very important to do something in a virtual meeting to make the participation paying attention to you and not getting bored.

  4. I agree with this article because it is very important to encourage participants to pay attention when in online meetings, there are so many ways to do it, including in this article. So the participant can follow the meeting well and not getting bored.

  5. on this article, i learned how to more encourage participate on virtual meetings during this pandemic situations by communicate virtually, by giving brief task and ask to report backs and giving the time for team to solve it to get more meaningful inolvement. Thank you for the article, Sir. — Agustin Savira 2001604246

  6. It is true that people are often bored during virtual meetings because sometimes there is no interaction between the speaker and the audience. This makes the audience not focus on the material and doing something else. I think the speaker must make interesting material to attract the attention of the audience and have some interaction with the audience. We can use the method that this article tells us.

  7. Afra Soraya (2001600393) if a meeting that takes a long time will make some participants bored and not focus on the contents of the meeting especially at this time we can only conduct virtual meetings so that they can be more ineffective. In creating an effective meeting, all participants must be involved in the discussion and make sure all the audience can interact with each other. Make the contents of the meeting directly on the point so it doesn’t take a long time.

  8. Yes, I agree with this article. during the virtual meeting it must ensure that everyone is included, because some team members will naturally be more involved and talkative during virtual meetings but there are members who are more introverted and may find it more difficult for them to talk. as a host during a virtual meeting, this is a task to ensure that these people are also involved - and have many opportunities to contribute during the virtual team meeting

  9. Name: Jemmy Young || NIM: 2001624651 in the article I agree with the point that it creates structured opportunities for participants to get involved. Do something in the first 60 seconds to help participants experience the problem you want them to solve. I think there are many ways to get the attention of participants and in my opinion this is the most effective way because the majority of people will pay attention to something if it can solve their problems.

  10. the key is to get the participant involve. theres a lot of ways for you to make the audiences took part, such as do games or quiz, or do a group discussion, etc.

  11. Yes, from the article, the main point is to have "two-way" communication between the host and participants. It's important to give interactions and giving something to discuss about, so the participants will understand and thus will pay attention.

  12. These are helpful tips! For me, one of the biggest challenges with virtual meetings is that participants can find it hard to get involved and contribute. So we have to ensure that colleagues have a lot of chances to speak up. Keep everybody connected and engaged by utilizing activities and questions that require their cooperation. In the event that individuals are locked in, they are more averse to get occupied or distracted, and we will retain their attention for longer.

  13. ice break during the meeting also important to gain the focus and make the participant getting involve. long time meeting will make them bored, so it will be better if the meeting only talking about the important things in point, brief description and clear.

  14. Melyana Pangestu / 2001553112 We can get the attention of our audience in a virtual meeting that is by giving examples of cases to dramatize topics, make group assignments, give advice to each other and discuss together.

  15. Bayu Pratama - 2001624336. Good articles by giving tips, especially in situations where the majority are done with virtual meetings.By making the meeting rules, the audience will pay more attention to the meeting. In my opinion, this will be difficult to do if there is no serious intention from the audience during the meeting.

  16. Maximilian Fajar Linus - 2001574874 - LA26. I agree with the article, because at the virtual meeting everyone just listens and stares at the screen it will certainly make the participants quickly feel bored, lack of focus and less concentration to listen to the material being discussed. During the discussion there needs to be an activity that can restore the focus and concentration of the participants so that what they want to convey can be accepted by the participants.

  17. Kevin Bangun Renaldy - 2001536453 Saya setuju, bahkan bukan hanya di dalam pekerjaan saja, dalam kuliah online pun saya rasa harusnya seperti itu, jika tidak ada interaksi antara speaker dan audience, maka tingkat terdistracknya audience lebih tinggi, apalagi sangat sulit memantau satu per satu individu. membangun sebuah interaksi dengan memberikan masalah atau topik bahasan penting menurut saya agar rapat menjadi lebih berisi dan diperhatikan setiap individu

  18. Ferrel Enoch Ibrahim - 2001547671. I very agree with this article based on my experience. Virtual meeting is a very boring activity because you only hear people saying something and see the speaker talking. I agree with giving some assignment to make the participant active during the meeting and have something to do not just listening to the speaker.

  19. Edo Roy - 2001547665 Dengan memberikan beberapa pertanyaan atau dengan games kecil kita dapat menarik perhatian participant dalam online meetings

  20. When communicating virtually, so that the audience listens to what is being conveyed we need to set clear rules, such as don't speak too monotonously and for more than 10 minutes so that listeners will feel bored, and use clear intonation

  21. Videoconferencing allows employees to join meetings from the comfort of their homes. On the one hand, this is an advantage, but on the other also the cause of numerous problems. This is why it is important to clearly outline the rules and culture of participation in virtual meetings. However, even if this is settled, this does not necessarily mean that attendees will actually participate in virtual meetings. In order to improve participation and enhance employee engagement in virtual meetings, a few simple rules should be observed : starts with an icebreaker, invitation to speak, Ask direct questions, the familiarisation rule, the responsibility rule, the “include all” rule, create an interactive presentation, and the 5-minute rule. The biggest challenge of remote meetings is to keep the participants interested and engaged. Following these rules will change the productivity of any virtual gathering.