As a result of Covid-19 one thing for certain is there’ll be a lot more virtual/remote and homebased working in the future. It has it’s pros and cons.
As facilitators, coaches, leaders and managers we have a responsibility to help people participate in and contribute to on-line meetings. Here’s out top tip to help people fully arrive and be present and focused ready for the session – be it an action learning session or a team meeting.
People arrive into a virtual room through a variety of doors and in a variety of states.
Some rushing from their last virtual session, from switching off email or a finishing a call. Some may have just had breakfast whilst others are grabbing lunch.
Unlike meeting in person there is no travel time; not even a walk down a corridor. Just jumping from one activity to the next. This can impact how people arrive and how present they are.
As facilitator or meeting host you can help people arrive, focus and connect in readiness for working together by using the following steps.
Arriving
Distancing
Getting focused, present
Connecting
Arriving & distancing
People often arrive straight from being involved in other work, heads full of their last activity. Mentally they bring this with them.
Ask ‘Who’s already been working today?’, ‘What have you come from?’ Acknowledge the fact that people are busy and may not have had a break in-between.
The next step helps create distance mentally at least from their last activity.
Getting present and focused
This is about:
Being ‘here’ able to fully contribute and participate.
Bringing their attention to the activity
Being clear on the task ahead – what we are here to do
A quick and effective way to do this is invite everyone to turn their cameras off and mute, then either close their eyes or lower their gaze. Invite them to take 3-4 belly breathes, get a sense of the bodies, feet on the floor and check in with how they and their body is feeling.
Invite them to identify anything that occupying their mind and put it aside to pick up later. It’s like checking to see how many tabs you have open and closing them down.
These first three parts to this sequence can effectively be done in 3-4 minutes and it pays to invest this time upfront.
Connecting
Finally give each person the opportunity to speak and check-in. Allow a couple of minutes for everyone to share and reconnect with the Set. This can be as simple as asking people to finish a sentence such as
‘My internal weather today is…’
‘Something I’m looking forward to is…’
‘As I some into this session I’m noticing/feeling…’
To keep it moving invite people by name or ask whoever sets it off to pass it on to the next person until everyone has gone.
If the group is too large to allow individuals’ time then still help them get present and focused and use the chat or rename function (if on Zoom) to share something
Finally, be aware of your audience and language. Some don’t relate to mindfulness or presencing. Getting focused is more acceptable.