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Archives for April 2022

Why Mute is Killing the Virtual Meeting and How to Change It!

You’re logging into your twelfth online meeting of the week. You promptly turn off your video and mute yourself to silence your family members and pets walking behind you.

The meeting begins, most people aren’t even on video and everyone is muted. Suddenly, you hear Sally slurping her morning yogurt. You chat a message to Sally — “please mute yourself.” Then you roll your eyes and go back to the email you were trying to write while the meeting moves on. 

Later, someone poses a question and asks for your response. There’s a few seconds of dead air until you realize you’re still on mute—always a risk when you’re caught off guard while multitasking. Just as you toggle your mic on, someone says, “We can’t hear you, you’re on mute.” You roll your eyes again, grateful your video’s off.

Does this sound familiar? Sadly, this is how the majority of people in the business world are interacting with one another. It’s no wonder that mute is killing the virtual meeting. Let’s see how we can change it!

The Dreaded Virtual Meeting

In a 2021 survey of 40 managers, they were asked about the biggest challenges they face in their current work. The recurring themes: 

  • Navigating change
  • Navigating communication breakdowns that negatively impact team health 
  • Creating transparency within a remote team
  • Fostering creative virtual environments for online work
  • Helping teams get the best out of their work-from-home experience
  • Building trust and relationships remotely

All of these challenges start and end with how we hold online meetings. So how do we fix the problems and get more out of the virtual workplace?

There are two factors creating the conditions for all the ways a meeting can fall flat: the mute button and turning off your video. These two actions combined can suck the relationship and connection right out of a meeting. 

Where’s The Connection in Online Connection?

Believe it or not, virtual meetings themselves are no worse than in-person meetings.

In 2017, Leslie Perlow noted in Harvard Business Review found that 71% of the managers surveyed found meetings unproductive and inefficient; 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.

Meeting virtually on a much broader scale has not changed much. Multi-tasking and feeling stuck in conflict are common complaints, whether you’re meeting online or in person. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on these kinds of meeting dysfunctions because we’re collectively talking about it more. 

Although online collaboration tools have seen a surge in use these past two years, they don’t necessarily make online work easier—they just make it possible. And there is definitely an overhead cost. In my experience, it takes upward of 30% more time to plan, design, and get everyone set up for success in an online meeting than if we were just walking into the same physical room and sitting down.

In the office, we take for granted that you can invite people to a meeting, give them the location, and expect that they will get themselves there.

Online, you have to  give everyone access and past firewalls, help them navigate the technology, and familiarize them with the features—just to get them into your virtual room.  

Virtual Meeting Fatigue

Moreover, going from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting is just as fatiguing as going from meeting to meeting in a physical office space—and we don’t even get the exercise of walking between rooms! And then there is the spouse or child or pet who needs something from you in the middle of your five-minute break. In effect, virtual meetings suffer from the same inherent issues as in-person meetings, but cumulatively lead to an even higher degree of brain fry.

In this context, it’s easy to understand why we’re tempted to turn off our mic and video—but this single act is dooming our meetings from the start.

Because the one thing we are missing most in virtual space is connection. 

Having No Skin in the ‘Virtual Meeting’ Game

Mute and video off are the equivalent of coming into an auditorium and sitting in the very back row with a piece of cardboard in front of your face. You have a full view of what’s happening, but no skin in the game. You are an observer, not a participant, and you are signaling to the group that you are not interested in being an active contributor. 

When we have one foot in and one foot out, we separate ourselves from what’s really happening. It becomes much easier to criticize the conversation rather than to contribute to it. 

Virtual work isn’t the same as face to face, but it does not have to be miserable. You can create a space where people feel connected, heard, and valued—and where their input is genuinely appreciated. Then they’ll look forward to meetings!

When there is real connection, the virtual space can be even better than being in the room for some types of output. In principle, online meetings can lead to better results, more diversity of opinion, and more innovative ideas. Detailed work, large amounts of information, and decision making all lend themselves to online spaces—provided you are using an online collaboration tool that gives everyone equal visibility to the information. 

So, how do we get there?

Mute Off and Video On: Tips for Building Trust and Engagement 

Affective trust is the strongest and longest-lasting form of trust. It is built gradually as people get to know one another, and it’s crucial for effective and engaged teamwork—whether you’re meeting in person or online. It also takes active facilitation—someone who will help architect the right environment and help the team set new social norms that they agree to collectively uphold. 

To have the greatest impact on making your virtual meetings more engaging, fun, and productive, start with these two norms: 

Mute Button – “For Emergency Use Only”

There is no greater way to catalyze better team connection than by asking people to be in a quiet place so they can be OFF Mute. 

Why? Because hearing people laugh at a joke, sigh, or quickly ask a follow-up question creates connection. It provides instant feedback to the speaker so they feel acknowledged and heard. A collective, shared soundscape is often missing in virtual meetings—and it’s the cornerstone of building affective trust and better teamwork.

Tips to make it work:

  • Normalize the noises

The dog barking in the background or the car passing by are part of daily life. Normalize these noises! Make it okay that they happen, as long as they are not continuous or overly disruptive. Use mute only if they do become distracting—and then rejoin the conversation when you can.

  • Embrace collisions

When everyone is off mute, you will sometimes “collide” with one another—when two or more people speak at the same time. When collisions happen, just give it a moment for the speakers to sort out who will go first. Collisions not only empower the group to be responsible to each other, they increase the overall energy in the virtual room. 

Video On – All In, or All Out

In a study by Forbes and Zoom, at least 81% of executives said they found that virtual meeting aka video conferencing could strengthen relationships, increase understanding, improve the quality of communication, improve team effectiveness, boost engagement, and promote deeper empathy and cooperation. 

When it comes to building engagement and trust, it’s critical to be able to see one another. It’s the only way we can read the virtual room. When you pose a question and just get silence, video provides behavioral indicators about what’s happening for people. One team member might be addressing a child who needs something, another might be looking up or down in a thoughtful way. With video on, the team will have a better sense of how much space to leave one another for thinking, and no one will be sitting there wondering if they’re all alone. 

Tips to make it work:

  • Be fully in or fully out

We waste a lot of time by only showing up partially. When there is an imbalance in participation, it impacts everyone and lowers the quality of the group’s experience and conversation. Just like with in-person meetings, video on means you can see when team members are not responding. To avoid this, create a group norm to either be fully in or fully out. If you make a conscious decision to be fully out, get the summary notes after the meeting.

  • Just say ‘no’ to  multitasking

Oftentimes, video off is used by team members who are trying to multitask during virtual meeting time—they just don’t want to be obvious about it. But the truth is, we can’t multitask, no matter what we may think. What we can do is “task switch.” And when we do, our tasks end up taking 40% longer to complete—and we’ve disconnected from the group conversation. If you need to write that email, you should skip the meeting and write the email.

To reap the benefits of a “video off” meeting culture, create a group norm that prioritizes presence and design meetings that encourage active engagement.  

Preparing to Lead Behavior Change During a Virtual Meeting

Introducing new norms to your team can be challenging. Be prepared for people to push back, and take time to listen to everyone’s concerns. People have been trained that it’s rude to be off mute, and they don’t want to eat their lunch on video in front of everyone. 

After you have really listened to the concerns, ask people if they would be willing to try it for one week knowing that it has the potential to make a positive and productive impact on the team. After the week, you can revisit the new norms and see how people feel. 

This isn’t about making people do something they don’t want to do. It’s about making requests of people to try something new. It might be uncomfortable for people at first, but the result is better outcomes for the collective—better conversations, more voices being heard, higher productivity, and more positive engagement. Almost no teams will want to go back to the way they were working.

When meeting virtually, we can’t always avoid an unstable internet connection, but building team connection can be as easy as keeping your sound and your video on.

How Leadership Mastery Follows Consistency and Confidence

It seems so simple. 

To become a “master” leader you need to work on both consistency and confidence skills. Right? 

But what happens if you are stuck on either the consistency part or the confidence part? How do you move forward to gain a level of masterful leadership? How can you have a transformative, empowered leadership experience?

It’s about the people you are surrounded by! Therefore, choose wisely. 

Mastery is gained when you take the time to learn from and interact with leaders, when you practice your skills over and over with peers, when you listen to mentors, when you put into action new ideas and concepts.

Here are five (groups of) people in your life who can help you achieve mastery in leadership. 

1 Peers

Those who are in the trenches with you have lots to offer. Together, you can collaborate on methods and put into practice what you learn. 

Other ways to learn from peers include:

  • Bounce ideas off of each other
  • Collaborate on projects 
  • Ask for peer advice (What would you do…)
  • Mastermind meetings

2 Team

Whether you are leading a team, part of an executive team, or both, don’t think for a minute you aren’t learning anything! Being part of a team allows you to practice leadership skills such as conflict resolution, coaching and yes, how to effectively lead meetings.

Being an active participant in a team, or leading a team is one of the best ways to gain mastery in leadership.

3 Group

Group activities, and online communities with peers, are great ways to gain mastery in leadership. Starting conversations, leading discussions, resolving conflict and practicing the art of listening are all ways to gain mastery in leadership. 

Group activities can be centered around a specific industry, learning unit, career move, competency, leadership skill or even a favorite podcast! 

Being part of a group of like-minded leaders will assist you in becoming a better leader.

4 Mentor

Where would you be without a mentor?

If you think back about how you got started in your industry, who encouraged you? Who challenged you? Who supported you… that’s your mentor. 

What would you do without a mentor? 

When you think ahead of where you want to go, who is already there in that space and who is willing to talk to you about career moves, your next challenge and encourage you to forge ahead… that’s your mentor. 

Finding and working with a mentor is rewarding and can be life changing. 

5 Coach

While a mentor takes you under their wing and doles out advice when it’s needed, a coach gives you a plan to work, a plan to implement on a consistent basis. 

Without a coach, getting to the next level of leadership and mastering the most difficult of situations can feel…an impossible level to attain. 

Partnering with the right coach as you develop leadership skills will save you time and effort, and potentially give you a more direct path to mastery. 

Mastery in Leadership Comes from Working with a Variety of People 

In order to lead people, you need to interact with your teams, and when leading people, you need to learn from peers, mentors and coaches.

In short, to lead people you need to listen to people!

How can you gain mastery of agile team coaching in the shortest amount of time? 

You can gain leadership mastery by doing the work, of course. 

TeamCatapult has developed a journey to masterful coaching for leaders just like you.

A Cohort Journey to Masterful Agile Team Coaching

The Coaching Agility From Within Cohort, our in-depth, 9-month program emphasizes rigorous practice and rich feedback opportunities including skill drills, peer coaching, team coaching, ongoing group work, professional one-on-one coaching, and one-on-one supervision of actual Agile coaching sessions in your own work environment. 

You’ll touch on all aspects of coaching, including 

  • skill drills
  • peer coaching
  • team coaching
  • ongoing group work
  • professional one-on-one coaching
  • one-on-one supervision of actual Agile coaching sessions in your own work environment

Our cohort program has two starting dates each calendar year; one in the Spring, one in the Fall. 

We understand the commitment it requires to be dedicated to a 9-month leadership cohort. Questions may bubble up like, “Is this right for me. Is this the right time?” Therefore we invite you to a conversation about our cohort, whether you are ready to join now, this Fall, or in the next year or two!

5 Ways To Regain Confidence as a Team Leader

The most impactful approach to the coaching opportunity…I now have the skills to ask a question in a way so the team can hear the question and transfer ownership to the team. I’ve gained the confidence to be okay with not having the answers to questions.

~ Chris Kaeberlein, Coaching Agility From Within Cohort Participant

As a cohort participant, Chris gained confidence to lead, even without having all the answers. He gained confidence to lead a team while being on his own continuous leadership journey. How can you, a leader, gain (more) confidence as a team leader, too? 

Here are 5 ways to do it! 

1 Setting Goals Will Help You Gain Confidence

Goal setting is a vital part of gaining confidence in your ability to lead others. Knowing where you want to end up, will help you create a path to get there. 

Setting goals for yourself, setting goals with your team, and experiencing the success of productive team meetings can boost confidence. 

Start small, then think big picture. 

What are some things you want to accomplish as a team leader? What actions will get you there? What would be a positive outcome of your next team meeting?

Gain confidence by creating a roadmap to a goal. 

2 Focusing on Your Strengths Will Help You Gain Confidence

Not everyone is good at everything. You’ve heard that expression: 

“Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Being a generalist can be a good thing, but as you lead a team and if your confidence is challenged, write down your strengths; it may help you renew that confidence in leading the team to success. 

If you don’t know your strengths, or are troubled with how to optimize them, why not look to a mentor, colleagues, or a fellow coach?  Ask them what they think your strengths are. This can be an enlightening exercise at any time, but especially if you are struggling to identify or reconnect with your strengths. 

 3 Learning New Skills Will Help You Gain Confidence

Leaders learning new skills can boost your confidence and it models for your team in a variety of ways, but mostly by demonstrating that you don’t know it all and are willing to learn.

Have you ever taken an advanced facilitation class?
Do you know how to stay neutral in a team meeting?
Can you lead sustainable change, even when the stakes are high?

As leaders, we should never stop learning. Identifying what you want to learn next can be challenging. Look at problems in your career, problems or friction within your team or in your coaching practice you want to solve.

Now find a way to solve these problems with new skills!


According to psychologist Maud Purcell, sticking with what you learn also improves your confidence, She explains, “true confidence develops from an increasing belief that you can rely on yourself to take action and follow-through, no matter what the result.” Teaching yourself something new always leads to more confidence.

Source: theladders.com

4 Leaving Your Comfort Zone Will Help You Gain Confidence

In order to grow, you have to do things you’ve never done before! That means leaving your comfort zone and stepping into the unknown. 

It can be scary! 

I recently started a podcast. That was something outside of my comfort zone. I thought about it for a long time. I eventually made a move and I am loving the process of interviewing and having conversation with my amazing guests! 

Need some motivation to get out of your comfort zone?

“As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.” ~ Robin S. Sharma

“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” ~ Anonymous Quote

“The comfort zone is nothing else but a graveyard for your dreams and ideas.” ~ Anonymous

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

And my personal favorite:

“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.”
~ Brene Brown

What have you been waiting for? What is it that you are scared of, want to learn or need to address? Go and do it! Leave your comfort zone and gain confidence along the way! 

5 Attending Leadership Training Will Help You Gain Confidence 

Last but not least, surrounding yourself with other leaders is a great way to gain confidence in your own skill set. 

As the world has been cooped up and isolated for two years, I recognize the importance of leadership training as a way to meet up with leaders to gain confidence in what is working for you, and more importantly learn where there is room for improvement. Shared experiences will lift your spirits, and will facilitate your clarity and confidence in your own leadership skills. 

As an example, I want to highlight our TeamCatapult Cohort Program. 

This is an in-depth, 9-month leadership program emphasizing rigorous practice and rich feedback opportunities including skill drills, peer coaching, team coaching, ongoing group work, professional one-on-one coaching, and one-on-one supervision of actual Agile coaching sessions in your own work environment.

I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to my podcast Defining Moments of Leadership: Inspiring stories and tangible lessons from leaders growing their leadership range, clarifying and refining their model for leadership and daring to define a moment rather than let a moment define them.

5 Great Resources to Get You Started as a Facilitator

The definition for the word facilitation comes up as “the action of facilitating something.”

To understand what it means to “facilitate” we need to go to this definition: :make (an action or process) easy or easier.”

A facilitator makes the process of team members working together, meeting together and making decisions together easier by being a communication guide and leader. 

Examples where facilitators can guide include:

  • Virtual meetings
  • In-person meeting
  • Hybrid meetings
  • In-person training
  • Virtual training
  • Project planning
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Project Management

Facilitation is a great, often first step in someone’s leadership journey. 

If you are ready to explore facilitation as a skill you want to master, or improve upon, read on as we are sharing five resources if you wish to become a skilled facilitator.

1. The Art & Science of Facilitation 

For anyone ready to lead with self-awareness and group insight, this book is designed to help you navigate group dynamics so that your team can work more efficiently and effectively in a truly collaborative environment.

Published in 2021, this book is your guide to moving your team further forward using the groundbreaking Five Guiding Principles of the Facilitation Stance. Whether you are new to the concept of facilitation, or have experience leading meetings, this book is for you! 

You can learn more about this book or order a signed copy today! 

2. Facilitation Planning Toolkit

For those facilitators who want to uplevel their planning skills, TeamCatapult has put together The Facilitation Planning Toolkit, a resource to help plan out meetings. 

Included templates:

  • The Planning Canvas 
  • The Design Canvas for Meeting Agenda 
  • The Agenda Item Design Canvas
  • The Facilitator’s Guide

Having the toolkit from this free download is a great adjunct to the mindset we focus upon in all our workshops .

3. TeamCatapult Website and Blog

Another great resource we want to share with you, is our website and blog. 

You may have noticed that we recently updated our website. 

As a tool for you, as a guide for your leadership journey, we developed the Journey pages where, based on your role, and your level of competency, you’ll have quick access to the resources that will support your journey…or fuel a refresher that we often need.

Choose from Facilitator/Scrum Master, Agile Coaches, or Leaders/Executive paths and we drill down to 3 levels: 

  • Getting Started
  • Developing
  • Mastering

In addition, we have a robust collection of facilitation blogs we want to draw your attention to:

  • How to Create Purposeful, Intentional Space for Effective Team Collaboration
  • How to Reignite Your Team Meetings for Success
  • 3 Actionable Tips To Plan and Prepare For Your Next Team Meeting
  • The Five Cornerstones of the Agile Team Facilitation Stance Explained
  • 3 Great Ways to Maintain Neutrality in Meetings as the Facilitator
  • The Best Ways to Facilitate Collaborative Conversation With Your Team
  • How to Facilitate Meetings Like A Pro – and Get Results (Part 1)
  • How to Lead Engaging and Productive Meetings (Part 2)

4. Facilitator Self Assessment 

Next, we invite you to take the Facilitation Skills Self-Assessment!

Are you ready to support your team with powerful and effective facilitation skills?

Find out with the Art & Science of Facilitation Skills Self-Assessment – and start your journey to mastery today.

Start here.

5. Facilitation Workshops

Last but not least, we offer a variety of virtual workshops for those on their journey to facilitation mastery.

They are offered throughout the year, please take a look at the workshop calendar to find your preferred workshop and dates. 

Facilitation workshop offered include:

Agile Team Facilitation

Advanced Facilitation

Virtual Facilitation Masterclass

Your Leadership Journey Starts with Facilitation!

We invite you to learn more about facilitation by checking out any of the resources mentioned above.

We wish you all the best on your journey to becoming a master facilitator, feel free to contact us with any questions you might have about any of the resources! 

 

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  • The Art & Science of Facilitation Book Club Guide
  • Speaking Truth to Power: How to Talk to Your Boss in a Way That Works
  • How to Facilitate Agile Meetings That Help Your Team Thrive
  • Why Mute is Killing the Virtual Meeting and How to Change It!
  • How Leadership Mastery Follows Consistency and Confidence

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