Virtual Meetings, Application Essay Example

What do you think the causes might be?

For virtual meetings, the cause for the low attendance in the meeting is because the construct of the agenda was not encouraging the input of the participants, which should be engaging like the use of visualization exercises, online idea generation among others. For example, the leader should ensure that every participant should say something at least every five minutes (Schindler, 2008, p.3). In addition, trust and social capital should be built by leaders and thus ensure that participants have an idea (pre-work) of what is to be discussed in the meeting to allow to brainstorm on ideas to present. Momentum between meetings needs to be maintained in order to decrease the likelihood of participants multitasking and losing focus on the agenda of the meeting (Schindler, 2008, p.3). Consequently, some participants have not truly embraced the new technology, and therefore, they need convincing on how effective virtual meetings are with regard to saving on costs to be directed to other areas.

What could be done to increase engagement?

Engagement in this instance will be increased by leaders through ensuring that their technology matches their objectives. Tools vary for virtual meetings success and leaders need to note the difference in order to make the meeting effective (Wilkinson, 2004, p.5). Leaders who are SMART will employ the use of reactive questions that classify, confirm, redirect, challenge, probe, and acknowledge (Wilkinson, 2004, p.38). In preparing for a meeting, leaders should always “define the 5 Ps: purpose, product, participants, probable issues, and process” (Wilkinson, 2004, p.53). Like any other meeting, use of virtual devices need to inform, empower, excite, and involve all participants (Wilkinson, 2004, p.69).

References

Schindler, E. (2008). Running and Effective Teleconference or Virtual Meeting. CIO Magazines.

Wilkinson, M. (2004). The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting Results with Groups. New York: Jossey-Bass.