Online board meetings can be a valuable tool to make effective decisions. However, if they’re not conducted properly, they could cause boredom and low engagement. Follow these simple steps to make your virtual meetings more lively and increase productivity.
Distribute the agenda to participants prior to the meeting so that everyone has an understanding of what’s to be discussed. Consider asking your board members to listen in a quiet location without distractions. In addition, request that participants use your virtual meeting software’s “raise hand” function when they want to speak to avoid board portal tools for effective governance over-talking and losing the point.
Set a maximum duration for each topic in order to keep the discussion on the most important issues. This allows everyone to contribute and avoids discussion going off-topic or distracting other participants. Encourage your group to turn off their microphones when not talking to cut off background noises such as pets, kids and coworkers.
Also, try to close the meeting on time as this will show respect for the other board members’ time. It is also a good practice to send the minutes shortly after the meeting has concluded. It can also help simplify the process of recording and distribution of minutes using the built-in features of the software that manages your board like inline task delegation.
This will ensure that everyone is on the same page with regards to the discussion and what has to be done between meetings.
