ec lost in space 2020 header
Marcie Hopkins, U of U Health.
leadership
How to Lead Virtual Meetings
The role of the meeting leader takes on new prominence in virtual spaces like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The Effective Communicator joins Antonius Tsai to discuss how you can make the transition from presenting content to leading and shaping a space that builds connection and purpose.

Dear Effective Communicator,

I’m beginning to accept that we are stuck with Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms for the foreseeable future. With that in mind—how can I make them better? I feel like I’m losing my team. 

Lost in (Digital) Space

 

 

 

Dear Lost in Space,

T

he role of the meeting leader or presenter takes on greater weight in a virtual environment. Virtual spaces don’t come with the rules and norms that accompany all the other spaces we’re used to meeting in. Given that, we have to create norms and purposes for virtual meetings. We’ll give you a few concrete examples for improving your virtual gatherings—be they a staff meeting or an interview—but first it may be worth exploring the nature of virtual spaces and how they compare to the physical spaces we are more used to.

Different kinds of spaces

We gather in many different spaces throughout our day. The historian and philosopher
Mircea Eliade categorized these spaces into two kinds: the sacred and the profane. You might also think of them as intentional spaces and ordinary spaces. 

Intentional spaces have a clear orientation and direction. When you walk into a grand cathedral you know exactly where to look, even if you’re just a tourist, and you understand explicitly how to act. In education, the closest we get to this intentional space may be the lecture hall. In medicine, it is the examination room. But these spaces are often exceptions. Most of our spaces are quite ordinary. 

The focus of a lecture hall is clear, but the focus of a Zoom room? Where is one to look? How is one to act? The role of the presenter or meeting leader in this space is to answer those questions, to define them for your audience, and, in doing so, turn the space that is Zoom into what geographers call place

The focus of a lecture hall is clear, but the focus of a Zoom room? Where is one to look? How is one to act?

Places have depth and meaning, they recall past experiences and suggest future opportunities. They bind us together in ways that a space—anonymous, void, undefined—cannot. Virtual spaces are a third kind of space. And they are truly space. A void of ones and zeroes zooming past our eyes at dizzying speeds, but with no overarching purpose or meaning without our input. The Zoom space is different from physical places not just in substance, but also in style. Participants are more distant and there are fewer physical cues. 

The role of the person leading a virtual space is to transform it into a place. Taking deliberate steps can help you turn Zoom into a place of decision-making, or meaning-making, or brainstorming, or learning. 

How to turn space into a place 

It may be helpful to think about the purpose of your presentation and the nature of your meeting as you work to create a shared place. The four prototypical Zoom spaces are interviews, formal presentations (like conference presentations), small groups (like team meetings), and large groups (like department, faculty, or committee meetings). The table below offers ways to lead and shape these spaces into productive and energizing places. 

Space Characteristics Leading and shaping this space
Interviews
  • More “frictionless”

  • More transactional than in-person

  • Everyone on “home turf”

Create a shared experience:

  • Demonstrate generosity and empathy
  • Move from “scripted” to “conversational”

  • Use setting to create familiarity (meaningful backgrounds)

  • Reduce formality

  • Disclose judiciously (yourself and your surroundings)

Formal presentations
  • Flatter (fewer cues can be alienating or disorienting)

  • Easier for audiences to be distracted or tune out

  • More anonymity

Maintain attention & engagement

  • Start with the delightfully unexpected

  • Define what participation looks like (use engagement tools like polls, breakouts, chats)

  • Reduce content, clarify purpose

Team meetings
  • More open & intimate (team mates are “in” your home)

  • People care about each other

  • Amplifies cooperation/competition

Integrate life with work

  • Use check-ins/check-outs

  • Embrace informality

  • Connect & share

  • Establish ground rules (turn-taking, confidentiality, etc.)

  • Reduce slides, increase faces

Faculty/ department/ committee meetings
  • Impersonal and passive

  • Harder for side interactions

  • Routine, rote, malaise

Make it interesting

  • Set emotional tone with strong “why” & a story

  • Share agenda-setting with participants

  • Connect the audience with each other (polls, breakouts)

  • Invite decision-making & feedback

The empowering work of creating place

Our virtual spaces, specifically the Zoom room (or pick your platform), can be disorienting and even exhausting. The act of turning a digital meeting space into a place is a creative act. You get to make something out of nothing. Recognizing this aspect of the video conference—the opportunities for creativity—is empowering. It allows us to seize control of it and to wield it, instead of being wielded by it. 

Like any medium, the video conference has strengths and weaknesses. At its weakest, it is a series of rectangular images with talking heads; at its strongest, it is a place for connection. We can decide how Zoom mediates our experience with each other. We can allow the medium to make us feel distanced and apart, or we can play to its strengths to draw us together. 

You got this,

The Effective Communicator

The Effective Communicator is Isaac Holyoak. Isaac is a contributing editor for Accelerate and leads communication for University of Utah Health Medical Group. He received a Master's in rhetoric from the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University and taught speech, argumentation, and debate to undergraduates in Indiana and Texas in his pre-health care life. 

Contributors

Isaac Holyoak

Editor-at-Large, Accelerate U of U Health; Vice President Strategic Communications, CleanSpark

Antonius Tsai

Director of Leadership Development, University of Utah Health

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