Virtual Meeting / Presenting – Tip #2 You have to make sessions interactive
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By Joe Friedman
Welcome to our new world. As someone who has worked from home for the past 27 years, today is…Thursday, just like any other one, unless I’m in a classroom.
Most of our business (pre-Covid-19) has been delivered in-person, 75% of which is two-day classes, the other 25% is one-day. Several years ago, we started experimenting with the various web-based platforms and created a concept we call the Virtual Classroom, and yes, it’s the next best thing to being there in-person. We do role plays, there are large and small group discussions, we white board; participants are talking, others are sending instant messages. I’m talking, typing and listening.
We’ve had years to figure this out, and we’ve had a LOT of practice doing it. So now, you find yourself working at home, involved in virtual meetings and you think technology will “make it easy.” It won’t!
Each Virtual Presenting tip will come in a bite-sized chunk, so it can be implemented more easily. Plus, as this spills out of my brain, I’ll one day organize all of these tips into a book on the subject. (That was just a thought bubble, right?)
And one shamelessly salesy moment before I launch in…all of our classes (sales, presentation skills, negotiation skills and influence) can be delivered virtually!
Tip #2 – You have to make sessions interactive.
What do we fear the most while meeting or presenting virtually? The deadly silence! There’s good and bad news about the silence.
Here’s the good news – people are thinking! We are not all wired the same. I process out loud. My wife and kids have told me this for years. My wife (as well as 51% of the population) process internally. For them, silence is a good thing as it allows them to mechanism by which you get from A to Z. Further, there’s a reason most of us have not chosen a career path in stand-up comedy. A comedian has learned to tell the joke, shut up, and wait. People don’t react until they process, which takes time. A five second pause, which to us as speakers and meeting facilitators seems like an eternity, is rarely that long to the audience. Embrace it! Silence is your friend. (Bonus tip – the way to tell if a pause is too long is if people think the meeting is over and disconnect.)
Here’s the bad news – your job as meeting leader or virtual presentation facilitator is to manage the situation so there’s no dead air. If you read Tip #1, you know that this happens by plan and not by chance.
The simple answer is, “questions.” Don’t take it upon yourself to “fill the void” of dead air. Ask a question, and yes, you need a list of questions, planned in advance that correspond to the topic and where you want the discussion to go.
Have a subject matter expert on the call. Arrange with them in advance, the role you want them to play, how you’re going to use them, and most importantly how long you want them to talk. Remember that we’re in the “brave new world” of virtual communication. Running over your designated end time is not acceptable. Plus, having a “guest speaker” makes it more interesting, as there is now “another voice.”
Don’t have a SME to use? Ask one of the other meeting participants (in advance) to help you out if you find the discussion lagging. (Reciprocity tells us that the simple offer to play the same role for them during their meetings will be all the “currency” you’ll need.)
The best meetings are the one where discussion flows smoothly. You’re responsible for making that happen so it seems to have happened “organically.”
Look at the graph on the next page. Once you want people to retain content, interactivity gets ramped up to a whole new level. Think about adding:
Panel discussion
Testimonials / Stories (Plug for Ragan Consulting Storytelling workshops!)
Change Visual Medium (I smell more tips coming!) – at the very least, see if your platform allows for whiteboarding
Send an assignment in advance to be discussed – you need questions regarding the assignment planned in advance
Do a demonstration “live”
Administer an assessment – debrief it during the session
Do a skit
Role play (either live or as pre-work) / case study
Play a game / do trivia / have a quiz
Simulations
Some of these will be featured in future tips, but here’s one example. Years (27) ago, when our firm started, I had a friend who worked for a “butts in seats” seminar company. She said to me, “You have an MBA, could you create a class on Finance For Non-Financial Managers?” “OK,” I replied, not knowing how long it would take to get our training business off the ground. I created a one-class (AKA, MBA in a Day), which we offer to this day, and part one of the class is a Jeopardy game, just like the one on TV. And, yes, answers must be in the form of a question, and class participants (divided into three teams) must refer to me as “Alex.” I went to the Internet (which I believe was just after Al Gore invented it) and downloaded a free version of the Jeopardy and Double Jeopardy boards. Easily customizable, created content for this class and others (with client specific trivia), where I have the “questions,” class participants pick the topic and dollar amount, and a cursor click on the board yields the “question.” It’s awesome! Participants love it, and the class is off to a rousing start – in-person or virtually.
Stay Safe!
Joe Friedman is a Ragan Consulting Group Affiliate. He is the co-founder of ZEHREN♦FRIEDMAN ASSOCIATES, Ltd, which sells and delivers sales, presentation, negotiation and influence training. Joe spends over 100 days a year in the classroom (virtually and in-person).
