Benefits of Virtual Meetings

 

We’re all getting pretty accustomed to virtual meetings these days, and I just want to take a minute to say that I love virtual meetings! They have so much going for them. I’m not saying we should use virtual meetings for everything, in this post I want to explore some of the reasons why I love them.

1. Efficiency

One of the first things that I love about virtual meetings is their efficiency. Now, it’s not good for my daily steps when I can go from a meeting with people in Los Angeles to a meeting with people in Madrid with one click, but the efficiency of working across different time zones without having to change buildings is great. It could be one minute to the hour when I click into a meeting, then we have the conversation, and I click out. Virtual meetings are very efficient in cutting down on commute time.

2. Automation

Another thing I love about virtual meetings is that you can record them with different tools and even use AI to summarize and take the minutes of the meeting. You don’t have to have someone spend an hour after the meeting going through all the action items. Instead, it’s all there and it’s automated, which is also very efficient.

3. Evening Power Differentials

A more meaningful thing I’ve noticed in virtual meetings is the evening of power differentials that used to come from people having more senior positions. I’m thinking of one case where a person was physically very large, intimidating, and would often raise their voice. When we shifted into virtual meetings, their box on the screen was the same size as everyone else’s box. It was amazing that during the virtual meeting, this person took up less time in the conversation and people seemed more willing to disagree and add different thoughts than when this person was physically in the room, turning red in the face, and yelling at them.

For various dimensions of diversity, giving introverts a chance to use chat is also common. I see this all the time, someone shares a great idea in the chat, and then a colleague will suggest they speak up about it. We’re bringing more people into the conversation, and that’s a really good thing about virtual meetings.

4. Inclusivity

This leads to another thing I love about virtual meetings: inclusivity. The inclusivity goes beyond people who are already on the team. I do a lot of keynote speaking and another thing I found is that you can do some of these events virtually. Folks at different levels or in different geographies, who wouldn’t have been included if they had to fly in for an event or a keynote, can now participate. It doesn’t affect the cost, you’re bringing great content, and you’re allowing people to hear conversations firsthand instead of hoping that their managers will take these learnings back to them. I love the inclusivity that a virtual meeting creates.

5. Centralization

It’s also much easier from a technical standpoint to create omni-media, omnichannel interactions. You can easily share your screen and attach documents. For instance, in systems like Microsoft Teams, there’s an entire setup for each meeting, including chat and follow-up action items. You have all the slides or documents related to the meeting conveniently stored in one place. You have an amazing library of tools and resources to streamline the workflow and complete tasks more efficiently. It just makes a lot of sense.

6. Camera Control

One of the last things I like in a virtual meeting is the ability to turn cameras on or off with a simple click of a button. This feature is useful because there are times when body language gets in the way of effective collaboration. If you’re physically in the same room, you can’t turn that off. You notice the person who is rolling their eyes or turning their body language away from you. It might be completely unrelated to what’s going on in your head, but it’s very distracting.

In many cases, it’s advantageous to turn off the cameras and share a screen instead. For example, when co-creating people often do better when they hear other people’s voices without seeing their faces. You can’t magically turn off people’s faces in an in-person meeting, but it’s amazing how easily you can do that in a virtual meeting.

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There are other great things about virtual meetings. For instance, if you have to leave a meeting, it’s much less intrusive than physically getting up, packing your stuff, and exiting during an in-person meeting. So, there are many reasons, but these are just a few of the reasons why I love virtual meetings and have invested a lot of time in using them as another tool in my teamwork toolkit.

Alright, do you want more on how to make virtual meetings more effective? Check this post out: Why Have a Meeting?

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