There is nothing worse than having a train of thought in a meeting that you are trying desperately to get through only to have someone interrupt and say any of the following;
- One second, there is someone at the door.
- I can’t hear you, can you hear me?
- I couldn’t hear that last part.
- Hold on, my eggs are burning
Such is the world of online meetings (and that last one is legit, happened in a meeting).
We can no longer run remote meetings as we ran them on-site.
Are shorter meetings the answer?
Perhaps.
Are more efficient meetings the answer?
Definitely.
When you look back on your calendar from last week, how many of your meetings were a waste of time, with no agenda, no goal, no output?
Simply being there.
How many were derailed by interruptions?
Running meetings remotely is about knowing your audience, what they need to not interrupt you, what they need going in and coming out.
In addition, running meetings remotely is also about short blocks of discussion time and asking for feedback along the way.
If you break your content into short speaking blocks, you end up with breaks in your time (that are logical to you) and give people to ask a question on that one piece before moving forward.
You will always have that person asking for – Next, Next, Next – either wanting to show their subject matter expertise. You might have to say – it’s coming, just be patient – but eventually they’ll get the message.
And you’ll be able to finish your presentation.
