Tip
Encourage participants to use voice, video, chat and whiteboard to engage in the meeting. More attendees with their thoughts and ideas will become part of the conversation.
Details
Good meetings live from engaged attendees. Encouraging the use of multiple communication channels during a meeting addresses two challenges of meeting engagement.
- Not everyone is equally comfortable speaking in a group or equally fast at typing in chat or equally versed with using a virtual whiteboard. Incorporating different communication channels in your facilitation can help more attendees feel more comfortable to contribute.
- Often, attendees are more focused on what they are going to say and finding the right time to say it than they are focused on keeping up with the conversation. Multiple communication channels provide multiple ways to share thoughts and information. Adding a card to a whiteboard for example or editing a shared meeting document are just two ways for attendees to get their thoughts out of their head and getting back to following along with the conversation.
As long as everyone has access to all communication channels that are used and can keep track of the activities, using multiple channels can increase meeting participation.