Every virtual meeting should begin with connection: 5 examples to get you started

After nearly eight months of working from home we have pretty much settled into a new routine. The lack of activities like our morning commute at first could be spun as a gift of time, but now many of us have found ways to fill those spaces and are left feeling busier than ever in our remote workdays. Without the coffee breaks, chats with teammates or even pre-meeting banter while everyone is making their way to their seats - it can feel like a heads down environment all day long.

There are many blogs circulating the web right now on how to get folks to participate in virtual meetings, or the best ways to create success with remote gatherings - we contend that a great meeting starts with human connection. Peter Drucker said that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Many leaders today would agree, without a strong company culture you aren’t going to get the collaboration needed to create a strong business. You may have already guessed it, but we think one of the key ingredients in the culture cake is strong connection between teammates. 

With packed days and back to back meetings it is easy to want to stick to the agenda and give people as much time as possible to get back to their day and their to-do list, but at what cost? Taking five to ten minutes at the beginning of each meeting to ground in being human and present with your teammates can make all the difference in the world.

Depending on the size of the meeting and topic being covered, here are five ways we like to kick things off:

Open Up

Being a little vulnerable goes a long way. The internet is full of “How I am feeling today” memes with funny animals, celebrities or pop culture icons (hello baby yoda). Pull up a photo and allow folks to share their number, and the why behind it, in chat or come off mute. The photos are likely to allow for some laughs, but they also enable your team to take a moment to check-in and share how they are feeling. While we’re all living quite isolated lives, having the opportunity to know what each person is juggling allows everyone to be more empathetic, and ultimately productive.

Dig Deeper

If your team already feels they know each other well, this activity might be for you! The goal of the activity is to find out something new about each person - that is also unique to them. The first person would share a fun fact - if anyone in the group already knows this fact, they have to go again. Similarly, if someone else in the group has the same fun fact, they also have to go again. For example, if Muhammed shared he has run a marathon, but Jake has also run a marathon, Muhammed would have to continue. 

Get Personal

Working from home creates a beautiful opportunity to share a bit of your world outside of work. Challenge your team to grab something in the room they are in that says something about them. If they need help getting started, give examples like: a framed photo, piece of art, souvenir, or something handmade. 

Keep it Silly

This is a great activity for a group that is just getting to know each other. Put a handful of questions on the screen or in the chat, then go around and ask everyone to answer the questions using the first letter of their name. The first question would be, “What’s your name?” followed by prompts like, “My friends and family would describe me as” or “If I were an animal I’d be a” and so on. If you want to turn it into a bit of team appreciation, you can ask folks to identify something they appreciate about a colleague using the same letter as their name.

Show Appreciation

Taking a break to acknowledge all the hard work happening from home helps people feel seen. Kicking off a meeting by sharing gratitude for other teammates will not only make your team feel loved and supported, but more motivated to continue to crush it. Take it to the next level by having the CEO record a video of thanks to finish up the activity.

All these activities should take ten minutes or less with a group of five to ten people. If you are interested in adding a connection activity with larger groups, we highly recommend splitting folks into breakout groups to accomplish the task. For more fun ideas, or to chat about creating connection on a larger scale with stakeholders, employees or clients, drop us a line.