Currently there are barely any physical meetings being held in companies around the globe due to the corona virus. But how can you still work on projects in a team if you are forced to do home office?
The answer is modern software like Webex, Microsoft Teams or others. Nowadays you cannot just hold conference calls but even see your colleague or business partner on the screen. However, it still remains challenging to communicate effectively with people who work in another location.
The key to a successful video conference is having a host who leads through the call in a structured way. Before starting the conference, he should send out an agenda and announce the goal of the call. When starting the conference, like in a physical meeting everyone should introduce themselves in case they are not familiar. If technology allows, the host might share his screen to all participants and lead through the agenda or show important slides or figures during the conference. He should always keep the goal in mind and as when nearing the end of a call summarize what the group has accomplished, relate it to the goal and propose next steps.
You might receive an invitation for a video conference in the next weeks. And if it’s perfectly structured, everyone can join immediately, webcam and voice works without problems, we would call that “unusual”.
