Control a meeting can be a challenge [1] and a virtual even more so. Part of the following series, this and following blog will discuss Zoom-tools and methods to keep a meeting under control and the participants engaged.

The social norms and decorum seem less relevant while one is sitting in their own home and wearing their comfy-pajama bottoms. It is easy for a person to ‘zone-out-while-Zooming’. Checking emails, doing other work or just turning the camera off and wandering away. Less of a concern for small gatherings (e.g. less than a dozen or so), this becomes a challenge for larger gatherings.

Zoom meetings lack the inter-personal dynamic of an in-person meeting, they are closer to a conference call in this respect. No matter the venue, the following are some pointers to use in a meeting, Zoom or not.

1. Freely Zooming in on Non-Profits
2. Setting Up Zoom (TOO MANY OPTIONS!)
3. Zoom for the Newbie
4. The Alpha Zoom & Other Tricks (This Blog)
5. Tony White’s Presentation Notes and Tricks on Using Zoom

The Alpha Zoom & Other Tricks

1. Be the Alpha-Zoom

Make it clear that you are in charge by staking out your territory early, for example:

• Arrive early and greet attendees as they come in.
• Announce when the meeting will start, “e.g. we will begin in about 5-minutes”; if you control the start time, you are the Alpha.
• Moderate the conversation including transition points (unless you have a moderator, of course). The voice-over announcing the next topic is Alpha’esque.
• It may seem undemocratic but people are Zoomed-out. They appreciate having someone in charge so the meeting ends on time!

2. Mute Management

Most people know to go on mute if the dog is barking or the kid is crying, but a gentle reminder is useful particularly for a large group. Nevertheless, people talking while muted or unmuted people talking are mute management issues. Some techniques include:

• Explain mute management. For example,
• Explain mute management and Distribute instructions. See the prior blog Zoom for the Newbie. A few slides at the beginning of a presentation can save you a lot of grief.
• Reinforce the written. State at the beginning of the program: “Due to the size of the group, please stay on mute so we don’t get background noise from the microphones.“
• Oops, forgot. Mute a participant who has forgotten.
  • It may seem a bit rude, but if a participant’s microphone is picking up the garbage truck banging away then mute the person.
  • For privacy reasons, you can not Unmute a participant but you can ask them.
• Consider using the Mute-All button
  • Mute all is available to the moderator and it does exactly what is advertised. It is available from the participants button in Zoom.
  • Don’t spring this on the audience. As part of the pre-ramble, let participants know that mute all will be used and it is nothing personal – just meeting management.
• Up to Bat. Pre-warn future speakers that they WILL be speaking soon. For example, say: “Let’s here from Susan first and then from Raj followed by Charlie”.
  • Susan is primed and ready to speak.
  • Raj and Charlie know to find their mute buttons and in what order they will speak.
  • Others know that these three are talking next.
  • Identifying a ‘batting’ order let’s people have their chance to speak.
  • Do a ‘last-call’ before moving on. I use the schtick of ‘… going once, going twice, CLOSED. Let’s move on to the next topic.‘
• Noise Gathering. For a group less familiar with virtual meetings, do a noise gathering.
  • This is a pre-meeting activity. Everyone is asked to unmute and at a count of 3, sing, speak or generally make noise. After 2-3 seconds of this, then Mute-All.
  • The cacophony clearly demonstrates the importance of staying on mute and the need for speaker management.
  • This also gives the moderator a chance to find and use the Mute-All button.

3. Chat is Your Friend

For larger meetings, request participants ask questions in the chat. Benefits include:

• Triages the questions so you don’t miss/forget any.
• Forces the person asking the question to better articulate the matter at hand.
• Verbally, people can ramble and get ‘Zoom-fright’, writing forces them to be concise.
• Allows others to see what is being thought of. Unfortunately Zoom does not have a voting or ‘Like’ function in the chat.
• If you don’t get to the question, you can answer via a follow up.
• Be sure that you capture the chat before leaving: Saving in-meeting chat.

4. Announce the Meeting’s Timing

• Provide updates as to meeting’s progression and time-box more verbose speakers.
• An update can be something like, “we have dealt with our first topic, we have 47 minutes left to cover the next 99 topics.”
• If you know someone likes to talk, try time boxing them… and good luck with that!

Notes and Further Reading

1. Many of the above techniques come from running teleconference calls. There are some slight differences with a web-based meeting but most of the methods are transferrable.