A Blog for Improving Virtual Meetings, Especially Facilitators

This blog is dedicated to all of those who are participating in virtual meetings today.  Just like me you are probably agonizing over what transpired at your last one, unless you were directing as the facilitator. Funny how we don't think we are a problem; however, according to attendees, we may be their worst nightmare.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

• Facilitator or some person talking incessantly
• Getting off subject repeatedly
• Lack of direction or goals
• Lack of participation
• Wondering what others are doing

What is your experience? If you are like me, I have found many virtual meetings uninspiring and dysfunctional.  Distraction and disruption are its regular output.  Unfortunately, you and I contribute to a lot of wasted time and productivity.

In their book, We've Got to Start Meeting Like This! A Guide to Successful Meeting Management, Mosvick and Nelson say studies show that at least 50% of U.S. meetings are ineffective!  They quoted from studies prior to 1996.  The Internet has proliferated since then, so I believe it is probably much higher for virtual meetings.

Then why are we having so many dysfunctional meetings, especially virtual ones? The authors say its the transformation of corporate life; specifically, the flattening of the organization into work teams and the Internet causing a proliferation of meetings.  Decision making is now push down to teams. Teams can now meet anytime, anywhere, with anybody. As a result, people are becoming overwhelmed with, not only the frequency, but also the preparation required.

I think this is part of the problem. Just like anything we are faced with, we do have choices.  The corporate changes do not force us to have bad meetings. Yes, they do create new barriers and challenges, but it is up to us to find new solutions.  I believe the problem has more to do with lack of training and education coming from our school system. 

For example, my MBA curriculum provided education and training to help bring about leadership and management skills; however, on the other hand, it provided no training and education on how to facilitate meetings, especially where our leadership and management skills are so desperately needed!

So my purpose in this blog is to provide help on educating and training people to be effective facilitators in their virtual meetings. My goal is to research and create helpful hints and tools to empower us. Maybe our attendees will speak more favorably about us.  I hope you can join in and help, too.

Mosvick, Roger K. & Robert B. Nelson. We've Got to Start Meeting Like This! A Guide to Successful Meeting Management, Indianapolis, Park Avenue, p4.