All of us who present, facilitate or chair a meeting has in recent times felt the need to develop a personal connection with our audience as we understand the importance of it. It’s critical to connect with your audience to create a natural atmosphere by making people laugh, feel at ease, and so doing to get them to fully engage and even open themselves up and lose themselves in the content. The virtual environment makes it unnatural and awkward to create this kind of atmosphere.
In a Harvard article by Andy Molinsky – “Virtual Meetings Don’t Have to Be a Bore” he gives a few ideas on how to prevent loosing your audience on the virtual platform.
Good presenters know how to connect with their audience — which is really challenging in a virtual setting. To start with the basics, you have to be engaged, and energetic with an active persona.
Going online since the start of the COVID-19 world it’s truly an entirely different context, not a simply an in-person meeting or session on a screen. And while you should shoot for the same goals as you would in an in-person setting, you’ll need different tools to achieve them.
Here are his 4 tips for embracing the differences and making the most of a format you might not yet be comfortable with.
- Make it personal
- Convey warmth and presence
- Get used to delayed feedback
- Make it interactive
Make it personal
The nature of the platform makes it impersonal, so you have to make effort to achieve this. First off all be early for your meeting or session so that you can great the members as they join the meeting, and engage in a bit of friendly small talk before the main meeting. Have participants switch on their video if at all possible,( do warn them in advance so that they can be dressed fittingly).
Since you mis the reactions of participants try to imagine it and act out. For instance show a warm, engaging smile, laugh, and bring humour into the fold, make sure that your tone of voice don’t reflect the disengagement if you have a “ tough crowd” It feels like acting at times, but it is necessary to create the warm, inviting effect that I’m aiming to create.
Use people’s names to ask questions and when referring to them, ask for opinions and examples. The chat function indicates who said what alongside video images with people’s names, and encourage the use of emoticons it makes personalised facilitation easier.
Convey warmth and presence
When we watch a TV show we sit back relax and absorb info, and at times drift of and think about other things, we have been conditioned to relax, be passive and just absorb. But when in an online meeting, you have to adopt be innovative, engaged, with an active persona in an environment that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to that.
One of the most difficult things to do is to make “eye contact” with your participants this is not natural as you actually have to look at the camera and not at the other party by looking directly into the camera. Set up your screen in such a way so that the window with your audience is close to the camera. This way you can simultaneously make eye contact with them and see their response. The angle of the camera must be of such a nature that your face is at a comfortable level for others to see you. Beware of looking down at your camera. Be sure that your light source is in front of you to ensure your face is well light (don’t sit with your back to the window!) Remember to show a warm, engaging smile, laugh occasionally, and maintain a friendly, engaging tone. In informal meetings, you might create a connection by turning the camera on your pet or even a family member. In more formal settings, you can start the meeting with a personal story or ask people to share where they’re calling from to create a sense of warmth and connection.
Just like in-person settings, on-line environments also have their own distinct cultural rules and norms, and not all settings are the same. In an informal meeting it would be appropriate to look at someone’s shoes or pet, to create a sense of warmth and connection. However, don’t use the same tactic during a virtual formal meeting to a corporate audience or in an tender process. In these more formal settings, start with a personal story, a poll question, or ask people to write in where they’re calling from — all in order to create a personal connection.
Get used to delayed feedback
Presenting virtually inevitably means learning to become comfortable — or comfortable enough — with a different mode of receiving feedback. when in an virtual meeting or presentation little or no real-time feedback is being received about how the presentation is going. No nods of the head, no laughs from the audience, no opportunities to move around the room and engage with people in the crowd. In an online setting, the feedback comes mostly after the fact
Be weary that this concern for receiving feedback and lack of being able to read the audience become disconcerting and even distracting. Thoughts about performance and its effectiveness or ineffectiveness can interfere with the very performance itself. I learned to anticipate these feelings and make peace that you will receive no confirmation until well after the fact.
Make it interactive
Try to make my presentations engaging and interactive — and use all the tools at your disposal. Incorporate and actively use the chat function. This real time comments also has the capacity to include more withdrawn participants.
Use polling or short quizzes at the beginning of the session. It’s a great warm-up for the discussion and an early opportunity to get people involved and engaged.
Create environments for participants to collaborate and contribute, for example make use of breakout rooms
We are all getting used to operating in new ways — and moving to online platforms will push many of us out of our comfort zones. But it also comes with great advantages. Perhaps the biggest is that it saves organisations huge amounts of money.
Andy Molinsky is a Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Brandeis International Business School. He’s the author of Global Dexterity and Reach