Do you know that the human’s average attention span is only 8 seconds? But, with an interactive session, you can make the meeting lively and get people to pay attention to. How does this work during situations like COVID-19 and everyone is remote? That’s what we were wondering too. Almost all the powerhouses have gone remote and it’s been 3 full weeks since we went remote and we now have got the hand of remote meetings.
Are you not getting tired trying to get your team together in a con-call and keep it engaging enough? Let’s see the ways to make the remote sessions even more interesting!
Odd Timing
One way is to start at odd timing. Being perfect can be a little boring at times. A cooling method is to start at a more candid timing. It has a hidden fact that people might feel relaxed when we start the stand-ups at timings like 8:58 AM, 9:05 AM, etc.
Ice breakers
Start with an icebreaker question, like “Talk about your favorite book or a film or a recent binge-watched series? Any topic that is unrelated to our meeting, work, tasks, etc can do the trick. This will create a breath of fresh air in the meetings and you might also engage with your people better. People are most engaged when they feel closer and a part of the team. The key here is to park some time for discussion. Allow about five minutes per team member so the conversation can grow.
An Activity For All
This was the most voted activity across the globe and in our remote meetings too. It is a GIF creation. People working from home don’t have their cameras on, all the time, during the meetings. One way to make them turn it on is the GIF creations. Choose a move, a funny one though. Try recording it as a GIF. Sounds fun, isn’t it?
We try quite a few team activities to engage our people and give them breaks. Choose one such team activity , that could make everyone more interactive during the meetings. Share those moments on social media or the company website as that might help other teams try some activities too. Playing this in-between remote meeting, as a break, will be different.
Reliving old days
We all love being a kid. A carefree life is what we had during our childhood days. Share one of your habits during those days. A mischievous habit or an incident that tagged you as a playful kid. It will be fun sharing those moments with your team. Given everyone is home, they could even show some object marking their childhood memory. When the meetings are longer, these silence breakers can help you engage people.
Crowdsourcing
If one person hosts all meetings, it might be boring. For a change, a different person can host the meeting, maybe once in a week. It could be anyone; either a volunteer or chosen by votes. This will be a change of pace. The responsible person can still take notes as the team interacts. Maybe try this during a less busy day, to not affect the process much.
We have a strong team at Skcript and we like to try and make everything interesting. It’s our prime need to take care of the team while working from home. Getting distracted or dropped energy levels during meetings is a waste of time. Instead, follow some simple steps as a booster during these calls. When meetings are interactive and engaging for attendees, the effort is well worth in the end.
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