Keep it small

Meetings have a bad reputation as time wasters. That’s not going to magically improve when we transition to online meetings.

It’s even harder to coordinate who is speaking. It’s even harder to keep track of progress because everything we write down has to fit onto a small screen. No flip charts, whiteboards or other media that you can all maintain simultaneously in a face-to-face setting in order to visualise what’s being said.

At the same time, it’s much easier to get distracted while sitting in your home office. If it’s not your turn, if what’s being said is boring or repetitive, your mind is much more likely to be attracted by things lying on your desk than it would be in a face-to-face meeting.

Keeping the number of participants small has been a great way to increase the efficiency of many meetings before. It’s even more valuable online. In a small group, It’s easier to organise whose turn it is, it’s harder to tune out and it’s much easier to focus on a goal as fewer egos have to be balanced.

On the other hand, a big advantage of online meetings is the ability to record it. There is no need for attending a meeting “just to be in the loop”. You can always watch the recording later.