Nothing’s worse than a stuffy meeting, except maybe a meeting where everyone’s afraid to participate. We all know a quick icebreaker can kick things up a notch, but sometimes we forget to include online meetings.
Being in an online meeting is intimidating for many people. They don’t know the web conference technology, are unsure how to break in and comment politely, and don’t have nonverbal cues to tell them how comments are received.
If you’re running an online meeting you’ll want at least one of these icebreaker tips:
1. Introduce yourselves
At a bare minimum, always ask who’s on the call. If participants don’t know each other - say in a kickoff meeting with people from other companies - take it a step further and ask each person to expand beyond their name. Try for title, purpose attending the meeting, and something personal. A common (and effective) tip is to ask them to tell something about themselves we may not know.
2. Ask for a lead-in
Use a topic-related icebreaker to set the stage for the meeting. (I like icebreakers that do double duty.) For example, ask attendees what question they’re hoping to answer, or what problem they most want to solve. Check to see if your web conference software has online chat. If it does you can have participants type their answers and get oriented to the software’s feature.
3. Bring in a visual
If you use a visual icebreaker attendees will get a chance to make sure their web conference client software works right. Have a visual puzzle? Display it. Not much for pictures? Try putting a few movie quotes on a powerpoint slide and asking where they came from. Or a riddle. Or a sentence completion puzzle.
4. Survey says!
Surveys let attendes participate semi-anonymously. The shyer folks may be more willing to join in and get comfortable. Try one if your software supports group surveys.
Ready for your next online meeting? Take a minute and plan an icebreaker. You’ll be glad you did.