Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that when you are waiting for a virtual
Speaker 1: meeting to start, use the time for connection rather than
Speaker 1: talking just to fill blank space. So for in person meetings,
Speaker 1: people naturally tend to chat as they arrive. Indeed, people
Speaker 1: sometimes encourage new employees or junior employees to arrive early
Speaker 1: at meetings in order to build connections with senior colleagues.
Speaker 1: But somehow chatting before a virtual meeting can feel more awkward.
Speaker 1: How many times have you been in a silent zoom
Speaker 1: call where all the participants are sitting there, muted and
Speaker 1: looking bored. Maybe the host will awkwardly greet people as
Speaker 1: they arrive, but the conversation doesn't really take off. Worse,
Speaker 1: when people are late, you can find yourself sitting silently
Speaker 1: on the screen for a lot longer. The poor meeting
Speaker 1: host may start polling people about the weather in all
Speaker 1: their different locations, or the host drones on and on
Speaker 1: about the purpose of the meeting and how glad they
Speaker 1: are to see everyone until the late comers finally arrive,
Speaker 1: and the actual meeting can begin. This can feel like
Speaker 1: a waste of everyone's time that tends to sour the mood,
Speaker 1: which can lead to less effective meetings. Instead, if you
Speaker 1: are leading a virtual meeting, aim to use the arrival
Speaker 1: time for building relationships and connection. There are a number
Speaker 1: of ways you can do this. One option is to
Speaker 1: pose a question and invite people to respond out loud
Speaker 1: or in the chat. This gives people something to do
Speaker 1: in little to connect with each other. Sometimes a topic
Speaker 1: will catch fire in the chat or in the live discussion.
Speaker 1: You can ask a question that is topical. For instance,
Speaker 1: if you are leading a meeting about your company's orientation
Speaker 1: for new hires, you could ask people to share something
Speaker 1: that made them feel welcome in a new job or
Speaker 1: a time when they were new and learn something important belatedly.
Speaker 1: Other times, instead of a question related to the meeting topic,
Speaker 1: it might make sense to acknowledge the context. If your
Speaker 1: meeting is like the last day before winter break begins,
Speaker 1: you could ask people about their favorite holiday movie. If
Speaker 1: you are meeting at four pm on a Friday, well
Speaker 1: don't do that. But if you are meeting shortly before
Speaker 1: the weekend, you could ask people what they are looking
Speaker 1: forward to meetings don't happen in a vacuum, so you
Speaker 1: can connect by talking about life outside the meeting. Another
Speaker 1: option is to do a more structured ice breaker while
Speaker 1: you are waiting for everyone to arrive. This could be
Speaker 1: something lighthearted, like your favorite Halloween candy, or something deeper.
Speaker 1: You can pose the question, invite someone to respond, and
Speaker 1: then each responder invites the next person to respond. That way,
Speaker 1: you are not moderating the whole conversation. There's no awkwardness
Speaker 1: in figuring out who will go next, and people have
Speaker 1: a reason to pay attention to who has spoken. As
Speaker 1: late comers arrive, you can paste the question into the
Speaker 1: chat so they know what's going on. They will eventually
Speaker 1: get invited to share. By the time everyone has arrived
Speaker 1: and you are ready to start the meeting, you will
Speaker 1: all know each other a tiny bit better. The point
Speaker 1: of all of this is that time is valuable. If
Speaker 1: you have asked people to gather, hopefully there is a
Speaker 1: good reason people have devoted time to the meeting versus
Speaker 1: something else. It is too bad that people are sometimes late,
Speaker 1: but sometimes it happens. If it does, you don't want
Speaker 1: to compound the problem by wasting everyone else's time time.
Speaker 1: While you are waiting, you may as well use the
Speaker 1: time for something useful. People are a good use of time,
Speaker 1: so building relationships is probably the best thing you can
Speaker 1: use these minutes for. Figure out a way to do that,
Speaker 1: and you can start any meeting in a much more
Speaker 1: positive way. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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