digital meeting facilitation tool kitvirtual meetings. virtual workshops. virtual labs. team...

Digital Meeting Facilitation Tool KitApril 2020

2Confidential © 2020 Deloitte Tax & Consulting

Face-to-Face encounters are heaven. But virtual workshops/labs can also be productive as hell.This “living document” shares principles, tools and techniques to enable virtual workshops/labs. It will evolve as it captures lessons learned and best practices.

3© 2020 Deloitte Tax & Consulting Confidential

A meeting is not necessarily equal a meeting.

Setup and facilitated by you

What is it?

The Deloitte Greenhouse

can help

Virtual Meetings Virtual Workshops Virtual Labs

Team communication, informal check-ins with team or formal

client meetings

Discussions or interviews, shared presentations or screens, internal

or external, ideas or materials sharing

participative & immersive

workshop formats, designed to

tackle adaptive challenges and

create breakthrough results.

The next slides will help you to facilitate your virtual meetings and workshops by providing you with some tips and tricks based on Deloitte Greenhouse experiences.

Setup and facilitated by you

Designed and facilitated by theGreenhouse team.

If you would like some help to design a virtual workshop, get in touch with the Greenhouse Team:

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


5 key factors to keep in mind when organizing a virtual meeting

Tips and trick to organize a successful virtual meeting

Things that can go wrong

How technology can help

Agenda


5 key factors to keep in mind when organizing a virtual meeting


Designing and delivering a virtual meeting requires similar steps to a traditional meeting. However, there are factors that require special attention when designing a meeting or workshop.

How to plan and deliver a virtual meeting

3. Design your methodology2. Choose your tools

Before the

meeting

1. Know your audience and your objective

• Number of participants

• Who and where are they

• Define your objective

• Use an agenda

• Identify the content that has to be shared

• Determine your deliverable

• Identify the core features that you need

• Check if everything with the tools

• Assess if everyone have access and

know the tools

• Define what you need to setup the

virtual room

• Transform your objectives into virtual activities

• Think about how to facilitate virtual collaboration

• Think about to make your content viewable

• Define how you will assign pre-work

• Identify where you can use templates

• Define how you can introduce the tool

During the

meeting

4. Deliver Virtual Workshop

• Make an interactive introduction

• Energize/warm up the session

• Determine how you will explain the activities

• Think about how participants will share and discuss

• Determine how you will conclude the session

• Identify an action plan

• Use first names

• Define responsibilities,

• Actively involve people, ask questions

• Be empathic

After the

meeting

5. Follow up

• Determine how you will create a summary of the workshop

• Think about how to document a virtual lab to share results

• Identify how you are going to follow up on this workshop

• Think about how you can create commitment

• Determine how you are going to manage the action plan

• Think about how you can capture the feedback


Tips and tricks to organize a successful virtual meeting or workshop


Preparation and testing is essential. These tips and tricks might help you before the meeting


• Who needs to participate – who could just be informed of the outcome? Identify the stakeholders using your RACI grid (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed)

• Number of participants – we recommend 10 to 15, more people could increase creativity but also increases complexity of facilitation and technology

• Schedule – consider schedules and locations before sending an invitation

• Duration – we recommend max 2 hours. If you need more time, we recommend multiple sessions

• Outcome - identify the outcome / what would you consider a success but be flexible and supportive on the delivery

Technology:

• Let’s utilize what we already know and have to ensure participants are familiar with the tool

• Test, test, test – do a tech dry-run until fully confident

• Imagine worst case scenarios and prepare a workaround

• Consider that every participant is in a different situation and might have a different setup / network strength etc.

• Have a fallback plan if technology fails

Communication:

• Share the agenda before the meeting for transparency of expectations and roles (participants need to know why they are involved)

• Identify the content that has to be shared as pre-read to maximize interactions and leverage on pre-work during meeting

• Share a care package (containing everything needed for the meeting) or a list of what is needed (e.g. quiet space, webcam, headphones)

For activities:

• Divide participants into breakout groups or smaller teams ahead of time

• Make templates simple and actionable

• Kick-off each activity with a prepared brief of each method / exercise

• Close every activity with a debrief and time for questions or reflection

• Prepare a visual support for discussions

• When using whiteboards create easy to use and identifiable spaces for participation (create template, define where questions can be answered or documents uploaded, define parking lots and activity areas on whiteboards)

During AfterBefore


Don’t be afraid to facilitate a virtual meeting, with some tips and tricks you will have the hang of it quickly


Start the meeting:

• Present yourself and your co-facilitator and communicate clearly the roles of every participant

• Define the rules of engagement and ask all participants to close their emails and not-needed tools

• Introduce the tool and provide time to practice (never assume people are familiar with it)

• If you are recording the session, inform participants and get their consent

• Ask every non-speaker to mute to reduce background noise

As a facilitator:

• Determine a co-facilitator to help you respond to questions, solve technical issues or support the break-out sessions

• Be present, and do not multitask. Avoid distraction: no emails or other not-needed tools

• Stand-up while presenting, it keeps you present and energized

• Use a positive and optimistic tone in your communication as participants will feel your motivation in the tone of voice

• Timebox everything and set a timer to keep the process focused and create a useful sense of urgency

During the meeting:

• Make sure you are facilitating the process with sufficient communication (introduce for example who shares what, introduction rounds, strict time-boxing)

• Be very specific when explaining and define what must be done together and what can be done individually

• Ensure all voices are heard and nobody feels left out (speaking order or call on people can be very helpful)

• Allow questions but define the channel up front (chat or audio)

• Give participants a moment longer for input, give them time to share ideas and battle the mute button

• Create a workshop dashboard and keep multiple parts of the workshop in one place so that everyone can see the bigger picture

Before AfterDuring


Activities:

• Make it personal and ask participants to use their camera, this pushes engagement and participation

• Create compact activity blocks and allow breaks or blocks with less participation requirements

• After a break, gather participants around the outcome and don’t underestimate time to debrief

• Create an experience, add fun elements

• Incorporate energizers and icebreakers throughout the session

• Make visible what is articulated so everybody can follow even though they might have connection issues / interruptions

• Document questions, options, discussion points and decision visibly for all participants

• Leverage collaboration and organize breakout sessions to change the dynamic and create a more personal setting (setup multiple calls or use Zoom breakout rooms)

• If you organize breakouts be clear on how much time the groups get for the activity, how much time there is to share out after the activity and by when they need to be back

Make it dynamic and engaging. A virtual meeting can be interactive too. How to plan and deliver a virtual meeting

Face to Face meeting

Warm-up

Inspirational Presentation

Brainstorming on post-its

Voting with sticky dots

Break-out into groups to work on a topic, detail a concept, pitch an idea

Virtual meeting

Use video, upload a photo, scribble on a whiteboard

Share a presentation and open a chat/wall where people can interact, share questions and emoji's

Brainstorming thanks to notes on a digital whiteboard, cluster and discuss

Use a poll can speed up the process and so allow review and additional rounds

Virtual break-out sessions can be setup and use visuals build ahead

Before AfterDuring


Icebreakers are warm-ups to introduce new participants to know each other or get them into a special mood, whereas energizers are activities to reload energy, have fun and normally involve physical activities. These activities can also take place in a virtual meeting.


What you need:

• A facilitator

• An objective/goal for the activity

• The appropriate tool

• A timer / clock

• A playlist if possible

What to consider:

• Consider informing the participants ahead of the online session (to reflect on the question or do you want the “surprise” moment)

• Is it appropriate for your team? Is the team under pressure or in a crisis situation? –“fun” activity might be less well received, so make it relevant and adapt to your audience

• Keep technology, time zone and culture in mind when organizing activities

Virtual Icebreakers examples:

• Do a check-in: (introducing a personal aspect) e.g. how does everyone feel right now? Let everyone reply in 1 sentence and discuss a general tendency

• Team tour: (introducing a personal aspect) e.g. share a selfie of where you are working, describe your current view in 1 minute

• Superpower: (good to familiarize with brainstorming tool and clarify roles) ask everyone to share notes or images on “what’s your superpower? What skill do you bring to the team?” take turns to explain

• Me, in images: allow the remote teams to connect and getting familiar with photo upload functionality of a tool, by sharing pictures representing themselves

Virtual energizers examples:

• Walk: plan a break and allow people to go for a walk and share a selfie or what they see

• Spin a tale: use the speaking order defined and ask a person to start a story in the chat. Person number 2 continues the story in another message to person 3 etc. In the end read out the story (great to do in a team coffee break)

• Emoji challenge: everyone think of a title of film/book/ song and represent it with an emoji in the chat. Guess together

For further inspiration, check out: https://blog.mural.co/online-warm-ups-energizers

Before AfterDuring


Don’t just close the meeting. Make sure you have gathered all insights needed and plan a follow-up.


Capture:

• Capture video snips or presentations, screenshots, whiteboard results

• Capture questions and answers

• Capture feedback provided to create lessons learned

Wrap-up:

• Foresee 15 minutes for wrap-up to summarize key learnings / results

• If it was not part of your activities, ensure that you take time to define and prioritize next steps

• Confirm all participants are aligned

• Ask for feedback on each module/activity to improve the format (for example with a survey)

Follow-up:

• Share any presentations or insights received during the session

• Share key results and information captured

• Share the agreed action plan

• Schedule a follow-up call to keep the momentum and accountability thriving

Before During After


Things that can go wrong


… and how to tackle them like a pro.Things that can go wrong…

Plan compact sessions with a clear call to action, create power-hours.

Setup regular breaks. Move it along, don’t stay on one thing too long. A visual flow will help keeping the audience engaged and focused.

Get agreement from everyone beforehand because Buy-in is a must. Set some guides: no side chat, mute your micro when no speaking, commit to stay for the entire meeting.

Be virtual ready. Facilitator needs to play with his voice, tone and words in order to create variation. Look at the camera (eye contact), look engaged (open face) and don’t Um and ah, cut the fill.

Communicate rules to the participants way before the session and have co-facilitators to help solve unexpected tech issues.

Screen fatigue - one can’t stare at a laptop screen non-end

Attention span shorter than in person

Lack of commitment

Lack of energy from the facilitator

Technologies issues

Watch out for… …mitigate the risk


Being remote creates new barriers, but at the same time offers new tools and ways of working.


Share a presentation / a screen: As organizer, it is possible to share your screen by clicking on “Present Desktop” or la PowerPoint click on “Present PowerPoint Files” to the group.

For other participants to present their screen, the organizer has to provide permission by clicking on the participant and “Make a Presenter”.

Brainstorming: If you want to collaborate with your team and use drawings and text notes, use the Whiteboard functionality in Skype. You can also:

• Show to everybody where you are on the screen (show your mouse)• Send a picture and maker bring modifications to it• Include text boxes• Send your brainstorming result to OneNote to save it (.png file)

Voting / Survey: If you want to collect data and get some feedback, launch the poll in Skype. You can ask questions by proposing answers and get the results directly. With this tool you can:

• See the global results and decide if you want to share them with the team conversation or not

• As the presenter, decide to vote or not; edit the questions; clean the votes; and save the results (.png file)

…the versatile communication tool for small groups (< 10 participants)Skype…


Q&A : every participant has the capacity to ask a question but there is only the presenter who can answer. Once he/she does so, the participants will have an access to those questions and answers, not before.

Record your meetings: If you wish to have a trace of your audio conversation, please inform the participants and ask for their consent. The organizer of the meeting can start recording at any time by clicking on the “...“ icon in the lower right corner of the window of your conversation, then, click on the “Start Recording”.

You can access all your audio records via the main page of Skype for Business > Tools > Recording Manager.

…the versatile communication tool for small groups (< 10 participants)Skype…


To have more information, guides and videos on how to use Skype you can go directly on ServeU and type in "Skype". Here are some useful links:

• How to use Skype (video):http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Skype%20full.mp4

• Organizing a Skype meeting with D.Booking and join your meeting via Polycon (video): http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Organizing%20skype%20meetings.mp4

• Presenting wirelessly with Skype (video): http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Present%20wirelessly.mp4

• Join international Skype meetings (video): http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Skype%20with%20other%20member%20firms.mp4

• How to join a Deloitte Skype meeting as an external: http://ludeloitteintranetv3/practice_support/information_technologies/How_to/ITHowTo/Deloitte_Skype_%20External%20Userguide%2001.2020.pdf

• How to use Skype for Business new features: http://ludeloitteintranetv3/practice_support/information_technologies/How_to/ITHowTo/RS_Skype%20for%20business.pdf

...if you need to know moreSkype...

http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Skype%20full.mp4

http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Organizing%20skype%20meetings.mp4

http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Present%20wirelessly.mp4

http://mediaserver/IT%20How%20To/Skype%20with%20other%20member%20firms.mp4

http://ludeloitteintranetv3/practice_support/information_technologies/How_to/ITHowTo/Deloitte_Skype_%20External%20Userguide%2001.2020.pdf

http://ludeloitteintranetv3/practice_support/information_technologies/How_to/ITHowTo/RS_Skype%20for%20business.pdf


A set of tools that can be accessed by everyone via the basic version of Zoom, directly downloadable on the Deloitte App Center.

Share a presentation / a screen: Moderators can share their own screen, simply one app they are using on their desktop or even a portion of their screen. They can also attach a second camera or connect their iPhone or iPad.

Brainstorming: The Whiteboard function is a useful tool to interact with participants the same way one would at work in front of a standard whiteboard. Simply click on the Share button, then on Whiteboard and then on the Share in the bottom right of the pop-up window. The tool allows: adding images, writing comments to drawing shapes and lines.

Interact with participants: participants can send “Nudges” to the host, giving feedback on the facilitation e.g. ask to go faster or slower, ask for a break or answer “yes/no”.

…the new communication tool for video and bigger groups (up to 500 participants)Zoom…


Generate working groups : through breakout rooms the host can separate participants into different virtual rooms.

The host can create breakout rooms through the button found at the command menu on the bottom of the meeting page. A maximum of 50 rooms can be created. The participants can be assigned automatically or the host can create the room by manually adding them to each room and each participant will receive a request to join. Only the selected participants and the host can see what is happening in that given room. The host can give an assignment for instance, and divide the participants into different working groups through the breakout rooms. The host can enter and exit each room as he pleases.

Participants can work together using the whiteboard, in which everyone can collaborate at the same time. What has been written on the whiteboard will get erased after the room is closed so it is better to save the whiteboard with the button on the top right of the menu. The whiteboard will then be saved on the Document File in the user’s computer.

The host can also broadcast messages for every room (i.e. “2 minutes missing before wrapping up”). The host can summon everyone back by simply closing every room with the specific button. That gives 59 seconds to everyone to wrap everything up and leave the room.



Questions and answers: Moderators can ask questions and people can vote Yes or No on their group chat with the interaction buttons.

Chat: messages can be sent in the chat section, which also include the possibility to send personal private message by simply changing the setting from "Everyone" to the specific addressee.

Have a report of attendance: it is possible to extract a report of attendants which is visible in the Reports section in the web version of Zoom at: https://deloitte.zoom.us/account/my/report

Polls*: hosts can create polls and have the participants answer by simply setting one with the proper command in the bottom menu.

Record your meetings*: if you wish to have a trace of your audio conversation, please inform the participants and ask for their consent.

Webinars*: if you wish to create a webinar Zoom offers such service, and we suggest following the online guide directly on Zoom’s website.


* Only available with licensed access. Partners / Directors / Managing Directors have been issued licenses for Zoom and have access to this feature.


To have additional information on how to use Zoom you can go to the program’s dedicated webpage on how to use Zoom for various purposes:https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html

You can also access Zoom’s video tutorials to get accustomed with the basic functions and tools: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206618765-Zoom-Video-Tutorials

...if you need to know moreZoom...

https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206618765-Zoom-Video-Tutorials


Appendix


Good to know……for breakout sessions

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