Best Practices for Virtual Meetings

Two years into the pandemic, we have all become quite accustomed to virtual meetings.  For some of us, we feel as though our teams have improved their ability to communicate and collaborate virtually.  Others have encountered various frustrations and grappled with Zoom fatigue.  Recognizing these challenges, Kellogg School Professor Leigh Thompson has offered us three important recommendations for improving virtual meetings.   

1.  Work on engaging in constructive conflict with others.  Start with low-stakes situations and decisions, and use those discussions as an opportunity to build your team's capability to have thoughtful, productive, and positive debates.  Thompson explains in this excerpt from a Kellogg Insight article about her work: 

With fewer social interactions with our colleagues that allow us to constantly adjust and modify our communications, expressing disagreement virtually is more likely to go off the rails. And, in the absence of strong social cues and corresponding brain activity that is triggered by real human connection, we may feel less inhibited and be more likely to crack that snarky joke at a colleague’s expense. “People are not as nice when they’re communicating virtually,” says Thompson.

Even when intentions are good, misinterpretations abound. “Most people believe that they’re being hard on the problem, but the recipient feels that they’re being personally attacked,” says Thompson.

Add to this the reality that we cannot simply run down the hall or initiate an impromptu one-on-one conversation to clear up these misconceptions, and perhaps it is unsurprising that some teams overcorrect and avoid conflict at all costs.

But avoiding conflict altogether simply cannot be the solution. After all, some conflict is key to high performance. Thompson cites studies that find that a certain amount of task conflict is associated with higher creativity. For example, in one study of diversity in biotech labs, conflict was associated with more patents.

2.  Take advantage of the opportunity for creativity to flourish amidst a more level playing field.  Thompson notes, “Substance matters a heck of a lot more than style, virtually.  There is no head of the Zoom table.”  Use the technology to engage in brainstorming that is more effective than the usual group discussions that occur in person.  Ask people to write down their ideas in advance of the meeting and then share them with the group using a variety of virtual tools available.  I personally like the use of JamBoard by Google.  Breakout groups also can be very effective at stimulating creative problem solving.  

3.  Don't just stick to business.  Thompson explains the virtues of "small talk" in virtual meetings:

In one study—presciently conducted before the pandemic—Thompson and a Stanford colleague asked Kellogg MBA students to negotiate a fictional business deal with peers from Stanford in a remote environment (via email). But there was a twist: while some groups got straight to business, others were instructed to have a five-minute phone call, with the only rule being that they could not discuss the business matter. They were told to “schmooze,” says Thompson.

The results? The teams that schmoozed with their virtual negotiation partners were more likely to come to an agreement. These quick phone calls seemed to act as a virtual handshake, erasing some of the distance between teams by helping them see the humanity in one another.

For more from Professor Thompson, check out this webinar she delivered recently.