Are you ready for the most productive virtual all-hands meeting of your career? These company meetings are essential for keeping remote teams informed, engaged, and aligned. However, they can also be a major drain on productivity if not executed well.
From poor planning to technical mishaps, we’ve compiled seven of the top errors made during these types of meetings and how to avoid them.
All-Hands Meeting Don’ts To Avoid At All Cost
The purpose of an all-hands meeting is to bring everyone together to discuss the company’s progress, key decisions, and plans for the future. However, if any of the following mistakes are made, the meeting can quickly turn from productive to chaotic.
1. Not Including Social Time
One of the best features of an all-hands meeting in person is the few minutes at the beginning or end of the content when you get to say hello to folks you might not often see. In a virtual setting, enabling these social interactions is also important. It’s hard to build relationships and have small conversations in virtual platforms like Zoom, but there are alternatives that can help your team have the same social interactions they love in a virtual setting.
2. Not Having a Plan
As with any type of meeting, planning is essential for success. Without an agenda and clear objectives, it will be hard for participants to focus and stay on track throughout the conversation. Ensure that everyone has access to a detailed agenda before joining, and make sure it has plenty of time allotted for questions and discussion.
3. Not Utilizing Sharing Features
Many video conferencing platforms have powerful sharing features that allow users to share documents, presentations, or videos in real-time while also participating in a conversation or Q&A session. Be sure to make the most out of these features, as these will help keep everyone engaged and informed about what is going on at all times during the call.
4. Lackluster Introductions
Most people jump right into business once they join a call, but it’s important (and courteous) to make sure everyone is introduced first according to their role within the company and/or the project being discussed. This helps build transparency and encourages each team member to feel valued in the process, which helps with productivity levels throughout the meeting as well as morale afterward!
5. Too Much Free Time
Virtual all-hands meetings shouldn’t waste any time getting down to business, but having too much downtime can be unproductive as well. Both extremes can kill momentum quickly, resulting in falling engagement levels which then lead to lost attention throughout the entire discussion. Try not to go over fifteen minutes when beginning or wrapping up unless absolutely necessary!
6. Poor Audio Quality
Poor sound quality or laggy video can ruin an entire virtual meeting easily because both prevent attendees from communicating effectively. The frustrating distractions like echoing noises or blurs interrupt the flow and force everyone to focus on technical issues instead of the task at hand. Make sure audio settings are adjusted properly beforehand so that issues do not arise during peak moments.
7. Too Long
It’s important to keep virtual meetings as concise as possible to minimize disruption to team members’ work. Consider breaking up longer meetings into smaller, more focused sessions. This will ensure that everyone stays engaged and the team can move on to other tasks quickly without feeling overwhelmed by too much information at once.
Lack of follow-up is also a major issue in virtual all-hands meetings. Take the time to thank everyone for attending and provide summaries of what was discussed so that people can review it at their convenience. Follow-ups also allow you to check in on each person’s progress on tasks discussed, as well as provide feedback or guidance where needed.
A well-executed online meeting can be incredibly powerful. By avoiding the above mistakes, you’ll ensure that yours is effective, efficient, and engaging for everyone involved!
Don’t Just Meet. Scoot!
The success of any virtual all-hands meeting lies in the hands of the host. Scoot’s all-in-one meeting solution allows hosts to set up, manage, and track their virtual all-hands meetings with ease. You can customize your background and room items, add premium background music, and even let mobile attendees participate through its dedicated app.
The Scoot virtual platform provides participants with a powerful yet intuitive way of interacting and engaging during the meeting. With Scoot, you can be sure that your virtual all-hands meetings will be a success!
Request a demo to learn more.
