Five great things to do after virtual meetings

It doesn’t matter how well a virtual meeting runs or how much you save on travel expenses, if the desired outcome of the meeting is not achieved in a timely manner. Meetings often fail because action items are not complete and expected deliverables are not on schedule. To avoid a waste of money on labor and valuable company time, the meeting leader must take responsibility for follow-up. Below are five things a virtual meeting leader may want to incorporate into their post-meeting responsibilities to ensure success.

1. Survey attendees immediately to improve. The survey can be a quick email survey of key questions with 3-4 responses that attendees can select from. This survey must be submitted within one hour after the meeting’s end time. Why this survey? If you are testing a virtual meeting tool for team use, a short survey of meeting members will provide valuable feedback. Feedback can help the organization decide if the tool is worth buying or if they need to continue looking for a tool with additional features or that is easier to use. If the tool is already the company standard, asking different types of questions can help the meeting leader improve when it comes to facilitating future virtual meetings.
2. Submit the meeting minutes or a web link to the minutes within 24 hours after the meeting ends. Make sure everyone’s action items are included in the minutes, as this will be the first thing attendees will look for. Action items should be listed using the 3 Ws: who I will do it,That Do they need to do? When must be done by. Also include a reminder with the date and time of the next meeting, if there is going to be one, so everyone can verify that they have it on their agenda. Incoming meeting call data does not have to be in the minutes because it should be sent to the desired participants a day or two before the actual meeting.
3. Use a single location for all group data related to ongoing projects or teamwork. This single location can be a secure server file, a team blog, or an internal forum that is used to record information that group members can review at any time between meetings. This single location can also be useful for storing all the links to your team documents on a server or company website. Do not put passwords in these locations, no matter how secure the site is expected to be.
4. Send a reminder of the action items and any other required information a few days before the next meeting, This will allow everyone time to perform their actions and report them to the meeting leader before the next meeting, which means less time should be spent reviewing actions during the virtual meeting. If someone is having trouble meeting their due dates, this will give them an opportunity to discuss resources and other options with the team leader. Any new document or presentation material can also be provided for advanced preview via email attachment or by providing a link for online review and / or download.
5. Plan the next meeting to be even better than the last. The meeting leader can improve each meeting using what has been learned from previous meetings. In addition, the leader can review the documentation for the tool used to conduct virtual meetings to find out if there are features that may be helpful and are not being fully utilized, such as in-meeting polls, slide shows, video, or webcam options. . and record information or make changes to the screen. Additionally, both the meeting leader and team members may wish to research articles and tips to better facilitate virtually, encourage greater participation in the meeting, and develop guidelines for meeting behavior.

Using and understanding the five tips above should help meeting leaders have more effective virtual meetings, because the leader is responsible for more than what happens in the meeting. To be truly successful, most meetings will extend to work outside of meeting start and end times. Therefore, the meeting leader must take the initiative for meeting resources and be willing to help meeting members understand their responsibilities for future success as well.