Hi there! It’s Ignis ?. Welcome to this week’s insights. Today, I have something to share with business executives in the digital workplace. It’s a different ball game when your office is online and your staff and team are online as well. It’s more strenuous to coordinate and organize your team. But today I will be briefly analyzing some steps that can help you better manage your organization. It’s not a long read…so, here goes:
1.) ESTABLISH A STRONG TECH FOUNDATION
You’ll need to first set up a digital meeting system. There are several platforms and hardware integrations available, and as such you have to first consider your company’s specific needs. Upon setting up your meeting system, you can designate a meeting coordinator who manages the tools and platforms to ensure smooth running. All the functionalities of the system should be tested consistently in order to achieve optimal engagement. Video functionality is of absolute importance when it comes to setting up your digital meeting service, and you should ensure your business employs it to its best advantage.
2.) HAVE AN AGENDA
This goes without saying, you know. In order for you to have smooth running and to effectively achieve the reason for your meeting, it is imperative that you should already have a meeting agenda even before the meeting is set up. Having an already planned agenda allows your participants to be well prepared with ideas and possible questions as well as enable them create content. Furthermore, this ensures that the participants can fully optimize the time spent together in achieving company goals. For more efficiency, it is advisable to have a template created for each and every employee, which would be easily accessible to everyone, regardless of where they’re based.
3.) DEVELOP MEETING ETIQUETTES
In a situation where you have different employees from different locations, and in some cases, different time zones, it will be challenging to schedule a meeting with every participant all at once. The solution therefore, is to alternate meeting times and schedules so that there can be effective and optimal participation. It is also paramount for instructions to be created which would guide these meetings. These instructions will help your employees and yourself to be able to get straight to business. Also, it is very important that you make your employees understand the priority of participation.
4.) MAINTAIN FOCUS
It can be cumbersome to keep up with meetings especially those of a nature involving several people from different areas. This necessitates the need to keep to the game plan in every meeting and avoid digressing as much as possible. It is necessary to appoint a moderator for these meetings, keeping the time as well as the pace of each meeting. Distractions must be avoided at all costs. It is advisable to limit questions and addition till AFTER the main meeting itself. And in cases where it would be a long meeting(1 hour +), short breaks such as bathroom breaks, drinks, etc should be designated where necessary.
5.) (ALWAYS) HAVE BACKUP
Given the nature of digital communications, such occurrences as delayed audio, transmission breaks, video glitches, etc, cannot be avoided and can often lead to the eventual breakdown of a digital meeting. However, this can be controlled if and when you have a back up plan. There are simple platforms which can serve as back up such as a mobile line that you and all the participants are privy to and can easily access in case the main plan foils, so that little tech glitches wouldn’t mean that you can tell have a successful meeting. Google Hangouts, and Skype, to name a few, are perfect back up plans for when you need to set up a digital meeting with your employees or team members. It is VERY important, that every participant in the meeting is aware of the backup arrangement, so that they are carried along, so as to ensure that where there is a breakdown of the initial plan, your meeting can still hold.
There you have it! I did say it wasn’t a long read didn’t I? ?. Anyway, I hope that these few points help you better organize your online employees and staff members to better position yourself for optimal business performance. I’ll be back next time for updates regarding effective running of your digital business/organization. Until then,…go make profit!