How do we get good stand-up meetings when the meeting is virtual?

The virtual stand-up meeting with Klartboard can be very good and just as valuable as the physical stand-up meetings. Especially when we are aware of the basic differences between being in the physical and the virtual space – and act accordingly.

This article is especially written for those of you who are responsible for facilitating the stand-up meetings.

What you miss in the virtual stand-up meeting

Most of us know it. You enter the meeting room as usual and Anne's quiet gaze, Preben's looking away, the boss's good morning, the folded arms over in the corner and Martin's enthusiasm at the front of the chair - yes, it all gives you a pretty good sense of the atmosphere.

Many of us also know. You connect on Skype. Desperately clicks on "download update" and by a stroke of luck pushes you into the right meeting. Silence until the start of the meeting. Review of 13 slides. Questions. And answers that never turn into dialogue and conversation. Finish. Power off.

What happens!

Fortunately, someone knows that.

"The virtual meeting IS more taxing on your brain and your subconscious, even when the technique is playing and both sound and image come through clearly. 

You simply lack the unconscious emotional signals that you easily and effortlessly pick up in physical encounters and react to in a split second. 

When you're facilitating a virtual stand-up meeting, your brain is desperately scanning for feedback on what you're saying and doing. 

You are unconsciously looking for signs of what is happening in the social space of the meeting – signs that are not found in the same way in the virtual space.”

Facilitation of online meetings (2020)

Mette Ullersted and Katrine Kent, Playmakers

3 good tips that can lift the virtual stand-up meeting

Your social skills are partially out of touch when you meet for the virtual stand-up meeting. But don't worry, there is something you can do. Three pieces of advice in particular are helpful.

1. Advice: Take on the responsibility and guide and point

• Point continuously with the mouse at what you, as the facilitator, are talking about. The mouse is your index finger that holds the participants' gaze.
• Take on the responsiility as a guide. Tell where you are on the board, and tell when you have to move on to the next point – a new column, a new field.

2. Advice: Ask very specific questions

• Avoid open-ended questions like: "What do you think?", "Does anyone want to sign up?". The barriers to participants reporting on such questions are too great. It is difficult to sense the others, and the easiest thing is often to stay put.
• Instead, ask specific questions a la: "We must have two people on the appeals on Monday. Is it you Karen and you Steen?”, or “You have put your week in red Kasper. What can we do to make your week green?” 

3. Advice: Let the board do the talking - update along the way

• Klartboard is designed for easy and active use during the stand-up meeting. You can use this to great advantage in the virtual space.

• With a single click, you can change the status color, change values or assign tasks – and of course you can drag and drop tasks between employees.
• So consider how you can make the best use of these advantages, so that the board "talks too" along the way, maintains the decisions and, in general, becomes an active space.
• A tip: If you are in the process of discussing an agreement, open the agreement field and start writing the agreement; or discussing the possibility of moving a task to another employee, grab the task and drag it to the new employee. In both cases, you create visual movement in virtual stand-up meeting and emphasize what it is you are discussing.