Interruptions from family members are common. Pets can demand their owner’s attention at any given moment. Even work-related activities, such as answering emails, vie for the attention of attendees.

With so many potential distractions out there, it’s wise to take steps to reduce the white noise as much as possible. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.

1. Lay the Groundwork With Tech

In a world driven by technology, your best meeting experience can only be as good as the tools that you use. That’s why, before you start working out clever meeting management techniques, you need to start with the basics.

The tech that you use to host your meeting must be compatible and user-friendly. Make sure everyone knows what program you’re using and, if necessary, any specific versions or updates they might need. In addition, if you meet regularly, consider equipping your team with consistent, company-approved hardware such as headphones or microphones to help them engage easier.

2. Build an Immersive Meeting Experience

Along with consistency, there are tech tools that you can use to help create a more immersive experience. This may seem unnecessary, but the disconnected nature of virtual meetings gives it more clout.

Along with making sure that your team can connect seamlessly, look for ways to improve the overall experience of the meeting.

For instance, the Dolby.io Spatial Audio feature allows attendees to manipulate the digital location of each person attending a meeting. Using options like this can lead to a more realistic experience that captures the attention of your audience for an extended period of time.

3. Coordinate Times Thoughtfully

The timing of your meeting may feel irrelevant in a flexible, work-from-home environment. However, with so much flexibility, it’s easy to set up meetings that do your team a disservice.

If you set a hard time for a meeting, you might be forcing an employee to sit up and focus too early in the morning or at the end of a long day. Instead, use a good meeting app like Doodle to find the best times so that everyone can bring their A-game.

4. Educate Your Attendees

Once you have your tech in place and your meeting scheduled, it’s time to find ways to improve everyone’s focus during the actual event. One way to reduce distractions is by educating your meeting members. You can do this in multiple ways.

For instance, start by making sure that everyone in attendance is aware of why the incoming information is important for them. This helps in two ways. First, if anyone doesn’t need to be there, you can excuse them. Second, everyone who does stay knows why they should pay attention.

You can also educate your attendees in more general ways. One good option is to spend time sharing resources about how ineffective and unproductive multitasking is. This can help your team resists the temptation to split their attention during a meeting.

5. Set Expectations Up Front

Along with educating team members, consider what expectations may be worth communicating upfront.

If you have a larger group, explain the need for everyone to mute their microphones when they’re not talking. Detail how to use things like Zoom’s “raise hand” function if someone wants to talk. Basically, provide a sense of structure for how the meeting is going to go and then let everyone know about it.

It’s also a good idea to set clear time boundaries before the meeting starts. Even if you don’t stick to them perfectly, having these in place can help everyone focus “while the clock is ticking.”

Setting these kinds of expectations can help you maintain control of a meeting. It avoids wandering off topic and gives you the ability to help everyone stay engaged and interactive.

6. Embrace Asynchronous Meetings

As a final tip, remember to limit your in-person meetings whenever possible. Some meetings are essential. Others are extracurricular. With virtual meetings, it’s wise to avoid the latter as often as possible.

One way to do this is by utilizing asynchronous meetings. According to Associations Now, asynchronous meetings follow a format where instead of allotting a specific time for a live meeting, participants review materials, watch pre-recorded content, and answer questions on their own time.

An asynchronous meeting occurs over the course of hours, days, and even weeks. It doesn’t require consistent attendance and is a great way to answer less urgent or complicated agenda items.

While convenient, asynchronous meetings do require understanding and a steady hand at the tiller. Take the time to educate yourself and your team about how to use asynchronous meetings effectively.

There are many ways to reduce distractions in a virtual meeting setting. Start by getting the right tech to create a seamless, immersive experience.

From there, make sure to educate your attendees and set clear expectations. Use apps to coordinate and find times that work for everyone, as well. Do your best to eliminate unnecessary in-person meetings, too, by turning them into asynchronous alternatives.

If you can set the stage for your team to focus, you can find ways to have distraction-free meetings, even in a virtual environment.

Image Credit: Vlada Karpovich; Pexels; Thanks!

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Fast forward to April and May of this year; schools closed down, businesses shut their doors, the death toll began to rise, and most of American society came to a standstill. Our very way of life was threatened by something as simple as a virus, leaving in its wake economic, societal, and political devastation.

Most importantly, the COVID-19 epidemic has changed how we interact with one another. The need to social distance has taught us one very important lesson: how badly we need one another. In the wake of these changes, web conferencing platforms have become the new bars, conference rooms, libraries, and gathering places, which begs the question, “will web conferencing become the new norm?”

How COVID Has Changed The Way We Communicate

COVID-19 is what’s known as a coronavirus. The crown shape of the virus (corona means “crown”) allows the virus to latch onto healthy cells. Once it’s made its way in, it hijacks the cell’s ability to reproduce; copying itself over and over again, filling the host body with more viral cells. 

This is how a virus replicates and causes the disease that damages the body. COVID-19 in particular can be spread via respiratory droplets, which means that even the very act of talking or breathing can potentially expose someone to the virus. These respiratory droplets can also be spread by coughing or sneezing, and the virus can live on hard surfaces for days. 

The way COVID-19 spreads is why social distancing measures are effective. This means talking in person is less of an option, and there needs to be a replacement. Cue web conferencing tools. Without these tools, we might have no way to communicate with loved ones, clients, and employees during these difficult times.

Web Conferencing Tools Have Flourished

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, web conferencing tools have flourished. Now, not only are businesses and individuals in need of a secure and reliable communication method, but schools, government agencies, and universities are too.

Safer, Easier, More Accessible

Web conferencing services offer a safer, simpler, and more accessible way to communicate over long distances or with several people simultaneously. If you tried to use a landline to host 500 callers, it likely wouldn’t work; and, even if it did, your phone bill would likely bankrupt your business. 

Online conferencing tools can host hundreds or even thousands of callers. There are both video and audio-only options available, so you can host video conference calls, webinars, and so much more from anywhere in the world. Accessing the call is simple with a dial-in number or web link.

Many conferencing tools offer extra features as well, such as screen sharing capabilities, call recording, and more. It’s likely that we’ll see a lot more businesses utilizing these services in the future to better connect remotely and streamline meetings.

Meetings are a Drag, After All

If we’re being honest, very few people actually enjoy going to meetings, but meeting from the comfort of your own home can make it seem a little less painful. Virtual meetings can yield the same (or greater) results as an in-person meeting while still maintaining social distancing rules. Not to mention, you won’t have to be stuffed inside of a conference room that doesn’t have any air conditioning! 

The Post-COVID World

It’s not easy to imagine what a post-COVID world will look like. The uncertainty of the situation has only grown as death tolls rise and fall and America’s cases continue to rise. What is clear is that we can’t go back to the way things were. If COVID shows us anything, it’s that we need other people. Communication and relationships are so very important to the human experience, and when we’re lacking in them, the effects are catastrophic. 

Perhaps the problem is that we didn’t communicate enough or effectively before. We didn’t say I love you as much, or I appreciate you, or great job, and we didn’t value our employees, clients, or co-workers as we should.

There’s a good chance that the post-COVID world will include web conferencing as a principle means of communication for businesses. With so many options available and the benefits of meeting virtually in plain view, it’s easy to see why businesses would adopt this practice instead of traditional meetings. 

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What is your favorite tool for user testing your company website and why?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

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Free #webinar on Smart #Tech upgrades with @LenovoSMB on 9/20!
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This free webinar will bring together a group of tech expert panelist that will discuss the importance of keeping your technology updated, the benefits of cloud computing and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and factors that should drive your business technology choices. Here are the webinar details:

Smart Tech Upgrades to Drive Productivity, Performance, and Profitability

Tuesday, September 20^th

1:00 – 2:00 PM EDT

[btn link=”https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/235047375450782209″ color=”red” size=”size-l” target=”_blank”]Sign Up HERE[/btn]

This is a FREE webinar, so I hope you will join me, as I will be participating on the panel. I will be joined by Eric Knopf, co-founder of Webconnex, and TJ McCue, who consults on content strategy and produces web content for technology companies. The webinar will include lively discussion, best practices, and thought-provoking questions and answers and is great for anyone in business who uses technology and wants to be more productive, improve performance and be more profitable!

Secure your spot by registering today. I hope to see you Tuesday, September 20^th!

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This webinar is part of Comcast Business’s “Connections to Growth” series – “a year-long series designed to help you transform your business and drive growth in your company.” Each week the Connections to Growth website is updated with new blog posts on business topics like leadership, culture, training and technology. The series also features special live webinars like the one I’m telling you about today. Here are the important details:

Topic: Building, Growing and Keeping Your Team

Date: Tuesday, August 2^nd

Time: 12-1 PM CDT

SIGN UP FOR THE COMCAST BUSINESS WEBINAR HERE

This is a FREE webinar, so I hope you can join me! I will be participating on the panel, along with Julie Wilson (the Executive Director of the Institute for the Future of Learning) and Gene Marks (founder of the Mars Group.) During the webinar we will discuss what it takes to build a great team, including training the team, retaining your best team members, and creating a team that helps you with your current and future needs as a business.

The webinar will include lively discussion, best practices, and thought-provoking questions and answers. Secure your spot by registering today. After registering, you’ll get a confirmation email with the information you need to join the webinar.

This Comcast Business webinar is perfect for small business owners who want to cultivate a team that will make their business strong and successful! See you on Tuesday, August 2^nd.

The post Comcast Business Webinar on August 2 – How to Build a Strong Team appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Slack

We switched over from Skype to Slack, and it’s worked wonders for our team. You can divide the conversations into specific channels with their own members and use the “@” function to notify multiple members at once. It keeps our communication organized, and having the app on our phones makes it easy to communicate from wherever.

– Micah Johnson, GoFanbase, Inc.

2. iDoneThis

iDoneThis is a tool our team has used for years because of its simplicity and accountability. iDoneThis will send you and your team an evening email reminder to ask what you did that day. The team replies, and the next day everyone gets a digest with what everyone on the team got done. It’s very simple, and allows remote employees to celebrate and stay on top of team successes.

– Brett Farmiloe, Marketing Auditors

3. Sococo and Slack

Our team uses a combination of Slack for chat, and Sococo, which is a virtual office. It has offices, conference rooms, chat, video and screen sharing. The combination of these has drastically improved our remote team’s communication and productivity while supporting Revel’s culture. These encourage information sharing and keep everyone in the loop without too much noise.

– Kayla Wagner Faires, Revel Interactive

4. Wrike

Most of our team works remotely in various parts of the country or around the world. Wrike is awesome because it lets us collaborate on projects without having to email progress updates; it has real time notifications. It centralizes the information so employees can start working instead of trying to figure out what’s been done since they worked on the project. It has sped up our development process a lot. There are great business communications solutions offered in the industry.

– Peter Daisyme, Hosting

5. Trello

We have found Trello to be a helpful platform. We can communicate easily through the site in an organized fashion. It keeps track of what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. It also allows for checklists that keep you updatedon how much work, percentage wise, you have done.

– Stanley Meytin, True Film Production

6. Screenhero

Screenhero is an incredible tool that promotes effective collaboration remotely. The technology enables you to hold conference calls and screen-shares, but also goes a step beyond by allowing team members to actually control one another’s screens as needed. It’s a very powerful piece of software, and we have started to use it daily to collaborate across multiple time zones.

– Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

7. Asana

We have all our projects organized in Asana, and use it to communicate on projects every day since we’re a virtual team. My team loves the massive checklists in Asana, and we use the thread for each task to chat and give feedback if we need to. We’ve tried a lot of systems, and this is the one that has worked best for us and allowed us to cancel three other tools. Asana does it all!

– Natalie MacNeil, She Takes on the World

8. Salesforce

Salesforce allows me to watch what each employee does on a daily basis. It tracks each representative’s activity, sales, steps, etc. I am always checking in on this to make sure I am up to speed on everyone’s progress.

– Jayna Cooke, EVENTup

9. Teamwork

In dealing with clients and team members remotely, using a cloud solution like Teamwork is essential. Owning a web development company, it’s important to have privacy with your team members with the versatility of including and excluding the client when necessary on communications, files, etc. In testing all of the solutions out there when trying to find the best software, we chose Teamwork.

– Vinny Galiano, Galiano Brands

10. DoneDone

Although DoneDone is the most effective for development and software teams, it really can be used for company-wide communication and collaboration through one central hub. This platform easily detects issues in process, no matter what department you are a part of, and helps teams come together to solve said problem. DoneDone is extremely easy to use and team members adapt to it quickly.

– Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com

11. 15Five

The beauty of 15Five is its directness and simplicity. Employees answer questions ranging from what is and isn’t working to where they need help. The opportunity to answer specialized questions on a weekly basis keeps teams agile. You’ll find that sometimes you’ll receive a greater level of honesty or thought when your team is able to respond outside of the typical meeting or stand-up environments.

– Zach Robbins, Leadnomics

12. Projectplace

If you’ve used a platform like Trello and want to step it up a little, then you’ll like Projectplace. Just like Trello, it uses the Kanban method of project management (with Kanban boards). You get tools like Task Management, Project Overviews, Issue Management, etc., and it’s all visual so you won’t feel too overwhelmed.

– Cody McLain, SupportNinja

13. Confluence

There is no better way to collaborate with a remote team than with an internal wiki. With Confluence, you can upload files, document business processes, interlink pages, as well as tag specific team members to projects and comments where they need to address an issue. You can also set up email notifications for yourself and your team so that everyone is aware of new updates made to pages in the wiki.

– Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.

14. Whatsapp

Most of my team is spread out around the world. The best way to check up on them is through whatsapp. It’s really awesome to know when someone you contact has seen your messages. Whatsapp does just that, and with over a billion users, calls can be made instantly anywhere. Even Facebook’s messenger (acquirer of whatsapp) adopted the message received feature. Pro tip: When it’s urgent, I use both.

– Robert De Los Santos, Sky High Party Rentals

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