How to use Zoom for Team meetings

You want to meet your team and discuss the key priorities or brainstorm new ideas from home or wherever you are?

I have got you covered with our at the moment favourite Tool : ZOOM . In this  post you will get a step by step process and tips to create a great meeting  experience online.

You wonder how can you create that productive workflow that you have established in your workshops where you all sit together and now as you are separated you want that inspiring and productive atmosphere online?

Now I get you. As a passionate trainer I refused to teach by powerpoint only for many years. And I was convinced that being in a room all together with a flipchart , wall-charts  sticky notes and markers - having fun by doing the planning together-is the best.

After being a student of countless online classes I want to share with you what I liked and what I think can work for you too  so that you can  create that team spirit that we need to get things done and create  team atmosphere by connecting online.

 Step 1: Get your Zoom account. 

Get your account here https://zoom.us/ and if you can , get a paid Pro account €13.99/mo/host so you can make the meeting up to 24 hours long and enjoy premium features like 1GB of MP4  cloud recording. This includes feature like 100 participants and  a personal Meeting ID and much more. Download the Zoom app on  to your laptop. You may want to install the Zoom app for your Google or Microsoft account so that you can use Zoom directly from that app. I schedule all Meetings online. Webinars are great for broadcasting but if you want to see the faces use Meetings.

Step 2: Set up your Laptop , Light and Sound 

Use your laptop (Mac or PC)  with a built-in camera and audio, and put your laptop in front of a window so you have the light on your face.( for the night sessions use 2 lights with a stand or a ring light.

To be your best self on camera put the laptop on a book or a stand so that the camera is in line with your eyes and you can create a connection with the other participants.

But if you can make the investment. get a Logitech Brio webcam and a set of Airpods ( or wireless headsets) . It makes a big difference in the experience for you and others in the meeting when you have a quality webcam and a good microphone. A  USB Microphone or a lavalier microphone are great options. Remember our Voice and face add to the communication.

Step 3: Sign In and schedule your first Meeting

Give your Meeting a name
Prepare the agenda and schedule

• think of what other tools you may need for the purpose of the meeting and prepare your templates.
• Require EVERYONE to be on video. You can mandate this in the meeting invite so everyone knows ahead of time that it is expected.
• Use Breakout Rooms to divide up a big group into smaller ones so it’s not as overwhelming and participants can get more personal interactions. 
• Enable whiteboard sessions 
• Enable annotate you you can draw interactively on charts and documents
• Enable the Waiting Room function if you want to protect your meetings that have external participants, and you want to prevent people from joining a meeting until you are ready or the topic is confidential.

Step 4: Prepare Workshop Activities, interactive Polls, Small group sessions

•  Prepare slides with tasks and agenda for facilitation to give the meeting a structure and make sure you meet the time and get results.
• Plan polls and set up the questions inside Zoom before the meeting starts so you can get feedback and better engagement.
• Enable breakout-rooms and think about tasks for max 4 small groups and how you split up the participants- manually -or automatically.
• Have Music for the start and good vibes
• Prepare and Icebreaker to create a good atmosphere
• Make sure to have the rules of communication agreed before you start.
• Use the appropriate clear structured thinking process and its best facilitation processes and design thinking aids.
• Prepare templates for capturing Ideas in a structured way
• Prepare written tasks in detail so that each group will know exactly what to do.

Basically all agendas will contain partially or step by step building blocks from the 5 critical thinking processes. If you want to use them for your meetings you may download the leading questions to each of these steps here.

Step 5: Wrap up your Meeting with Calls to action

Make sure you summarize the results after each topic and create projects and tasks with a clear outcome, responsible persons and a deadline.

Request for feedback with a poll or survey so you can improve the meeting next time. Consider teaching your team meeting facilitation techniques so that you can practice leading meetings with clients and teams.

Record the meeting and get it transcribed if needed. Load it up to an online member-only team space or client space where everybody you want can access the recordings 24/7 at his own pace and put comments.

Resources:

Recordings and Community:

• We use Kajabi as our Team membership Platform.
  You may try a free 30 days trial here is an affiliate link: Click here to try Kajabi for free

How to Plan Meetings: 

• Blog Post: How to Plan a Project Start-up Meeting
• Mini Course:  How to Plan and Run a.Project Startup  Meeting

Meeting Preparation Coaching:
If you want some coaching or consulting and templates on preparing your next online meeting just book a consulting call. Book a Consultation