The influenza pandemic has put increasing numbers of businesses into an unsteady state and led to more board meetings held online than ever before. Remote work is likely to be a permanent change in the way board members are expected to work. It’s therefore important to ensure that your meetings are productive and enjoyable. This article will provide some simple guidelines you can follow to enhance your virtual meetings.
Set clear goals for every item on the agenda. This will ensure that you don’t end up unnecessary discussions and ensure that all meeting participants feel their input is valued. It is important to determine if the topic of discussion is intended to produce information, start a discussion or to come to an agreement so that your team does not continue to discuss the same issue after it has already been addressed.
Encourage board members to test their Wi-Fi connections and audio/video equipment prior to when the meeting starts so that the meeting can begin on a positive note. In addition, it’s a good practice to instruct participants to turn off their phones when they’re not speaking to limit background noise and eliminate distractions.
Make it easy for your board members to view minutes of meetings after each meeting by posting them on your portal and distributing a link via email. This will keep everyone on track and increase accountability between meetings. A dedicated software for managing board meetings like Boardable https://itcounts.org.uk/third-party-risk-management-and-securing-external-data/ can also assist in organizing and store all your board documents in one location.