Virtual meetings - the platform for better critical thinking.

You know how there’s always that one person who dominates a room? Loudest voice, extroverted personality, generally confident and not worth arguing with. It can be draining to argue with them or even find a pause to offer an opinion. If you’re running a meeting you really have to be on your game to ensure any type of critical thinking can occur because the introverts simply won’t bother unless invited to speak and given enough runway to do so.

Technology can be the great leveller.

I recently attended a three-day virtual global conference. It was the first time this group had run their quarterly get-together virtually. There were some great thought-provoking presentations and lots of room for intimate conversations.

But what I found fascinating, was how the technology created an opportunity to level the playing field in a very diverse group of personalities; it provided equal opportunity for everyone in a room to participate equally. Analogously I liken it to Moses parting the red sea, except in this case the red sea was the abundant flow of thought leadership and technology was creating a break through which the ideas of the introverts could pass.

By way of example, during keynotes participants who would normally be shouting out answers to questions posed by the presenters were asked to participate in the chat box. This became a steady stream of consciousness that was as entertaining as the keynote but everyone, if they chose to, could have their voice heard. There was simply no space for dominating personalities in the chat; if anything, the introverts found their voice.

So, I put to you that we can emerge from the zoom revolution in a better position than we entered. Levelling the playing field by equalising the opportunity for participation in conversations, offer opinions and foster critical debate so as to enrich the outcomes for individuals, businesses, societies and the planet.

I’d like you to consider an example that might resonate on how you could put this into practice. Consider you’re running a facilitation virtually. Clever facilitators use the tools at hand to remotely control the room. Have you been in a meeting where you can hear all the noise from everyone’s microphones and one person keeps interrupting? Contrast that with someone who sets clear boundaries up front about how to engage in the conversation and selectively unmutes participant microphones or invites them to do so. The experience is chalk and cheese; suddenly the extroverts have as much opportunity to talk as anyone else. Moreover, the chat box provides the appropriate mechanism for those who can’t help but have side conversations, but now it has zero impact on the main conversation because its text based, in another window, and if you do it right, unnoticed by those engaging in the main dialogue.

During a recent executive roundtable that I facilitated, several execs with offshore offices found that engagement from those participants had in-fact significantly increased because every voice on the call was able to equally participate. A noticeable contrast from a dozen people in a meeting room in one office talking amongst themselves with the satellite office tuning out due to being unable to effectively contribute. 

I think if we apply this to meetings, we can swing the balance of the time spent away from disproportionate contribution of opinions with minimal critique closer to rich conversations, critical thinking, and better outcomes.

This model seeks to explain the concept.

I believe there’s a solid argument to be had for more meetings to be virtual as not only is there evidence that the experience can be better, but it will help solve the age-old problem of meeting room availability.

I’ll concede that it can be more difficult than an in-person conversation to navigate the nuisances like who speaks in a conversation when we talk over one another; but I think that’s solvable by both practice and deliberate facilitation. It’s certainly easier to solve and more practical for distributed teams than international travel or returning to the office at the moment.

I’m not suggesting that face-to-face meetings are redundant; I still believe being together in a room provides the opportunity and environment for some deep contextual problem solving and innovation. I’m simply reflecting that an awesome experience can be had that achieves similar outcomes online and, in some circumstances, might actually encourage a diversity of thought you might not otherwise experience.

With Gartner* research suggesting 64% of professionals are already fully geared up for full-time remote working and for demand for remote work to increase by 30% by 2030 (owing to Gen Z fully entering the workforce) I don’t believe we will ever return to a pre-covid normal.

Learning the skills to lead high performing remote teams now and honing your experience whilst everyone is forgiving of clunky false starts, will exponentially set apart the leaders of the future from the leaders of today.

Source: With Coronavirus in Mind, Is Your Organization Ready for Remote Work?. March 3, 2020. Gartner.