8 Tips to Accelerate Collaborative Decision Making with Video
We were scared to switch to remote work during the pandemic: we were 100% office company. But it turned out that with video meetings, our collective decision-making, on the contrary, accelerated. So much so that when we get back to the office, we won't give up on video calls. We share life hacks below. First - the main general, then - in three stages of the meeting: before it, during and after.
Start the day with a team call
Contact departments or project teams. Many started this practice during the pandemic, so do we! And we are not going to stop when we leave the office. We have 3 questions on the agenda, each one answers them in turn. What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What are the challenges or successes? Everyone is always on the same wavelength.
Bad example:
"Good morning! Did you watch football yesterday? Yes, such a match. It's so hot, by the way, I couldn't sleep well. Does everyone know what we are doing today? Well, great.”
Good example:
"Good morning. Nikita, tell me what you did yesterday, what you are doing today. Excellent thank you. Questions about tasks? No, okay. Masha, what's wrong with you? Okay, well done, Mash. And today I'm doing a quarterly report. Thank you, have a great day!”
Preparing for a Shared Decision Meeting
Check if there are any extra members
It is not necessary to call everyone and everyone to the rally. Invite only those who are close to the topic or who can contribute to the conversation. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and one of the richest people on the planet, uses the “ two pizza rule ”: invite as many people as you can feed on two pizzas.
If important attendees can't make it, reschedule the meeting - much better than doing it all over again.
Bad example:
At a general meeting of the HR department with recruiters and HR managers, discuss reducing the deadline for closing vacancies.
Good example:
At the general meeting to discuss issues relating to all. To reduce the term for closing vacancies, collect only recruiters.
Submit your agenda in advance
Starting a meeting by explaining what's going to happen is a surefire way to waste a lot of time. It is necessary to summarize the agenda and remind about the topic, but if you send questions in advance, the participants will have time to prepare.
Send the agenda the day before the meeting. This time is enough for preparation: the participants will have time to think, insights can come to them. But there is not too much time: people will not forget their ideas. According to a study by Lumen Learning (American teacher training courses), people forget a significant portion of new information within 24 hours of learning. This is described in the “ Transferring information to long-term memory ” section of the Memory and Information Processing chapter of their study material.
Bad example:
"Hello! Today at our meeting the topic is a surprise! Discussing time travel with a speeding car and a clock tower!”.
Good example:
“As you remember from yesterday's emails, we are discussing time travel with the help of an overclocked car and a tower clock. Mr. Zemeckis, what are your thoughts on this?”
Holding a meeting
Brainstorm by video
Brainstorming in a video conference is more convenient than in a meeting room. Ideas should be written down, the list should be seen by everyone. Information for joint decision-making can be written on the board - but at the next meeting everything will be erased. And copying text from the board into working documents will not work. You can come to the conference room with laptops or tablets, but you won’t be able to screenshot one place in the document for everyone. What if you have desktop computers?
Ask, discuss important things on video - but what about security? If you use Mind, your meetings are protected by a protocol used by the US Government.
Bad example:
Hire a team of movers and programmers to move your stationary PCs to the meeting room and then back.
Good example:
Call to make management decisions via video link.
Take notes during the meeting
Write down important points - it will help, without losing anything, to make a summary at the end of the meeting. In case of changes or additions after the rally, it will only be necessary to “comb” the notes, and not go to other people, repeating the issues raised at the meeting.
Video calling helps with this. Create a document, rummage around all the participants and edit it in real time for a decision by the general meeting. It could be Google docs - or note-taking apps like Apple Notes, MS OneNote, Notion.
Bad example:
At the end of the rally: “Lida, make changes to the sales business process to reflect everything we discussed.” Lida forgot a couple of moments, misunderstood a few. The business process is approved from the fourth time, the head of the sales department spends time explaining to Lida again what was discussed at the meeting.
Good example:
Lida makes changes by referring to her notes. Everyone saw the notes during the meeting - everything that was inaccurate or incorrect was immediately corrected. The business process is good already in the first edition: the head of the sales department makes a couple of edits and approves it the second time.
The most influential speak last
During a brainstorm or discussion, if the group consists of employees of different levels, ask the seniors and the most respected colleagues to speak last. If they speak first, there is a good chance that they will influence the opinions of others and collective decision-making because of their status, shutting down the promising ideas of their more shy younger colleagues.
Bad example:
“We are starting a rally. Our deputy director has a cool idea. Anyone want to speak up? Nobody? Thank you all, see you soon!”
Good example:
“We are starting a rally. Dear newcomers, you have a fresh, unclouded view of our personnel policy. Do you have any ideas for it?”
After the meeting
Assign a responsible person and deadlines
Clearly identify who is responsible for implementation. Specify when you expect the result. You can set the date a few hours or days earlier than the real one, depending on the scope of the task. The chance of getting what you want will increase on time 😉
Bad example:
“I don't care who does it, but I want recruiting politics on my desk. Do what you can, but do it as soon as possible.”
Good example:
“Alena, I entrust the recruiting policy to you. The deadline is next Thursday, but finish by Wednesday afternoon. If anything, there will be an opportunity to edit.
Send the results to the participants
In order for the implementation of the decisions made to be on top, send all the participants what they agreed on - point by point, in writing. Ask to confirm that everything is so. If this is not done, busy managers or customers may forget some of the group decisions made. Then try to prove that you did as agreed.
If you meet via video link, the rally can be recorded . Need to remember the details? Check out the post!
Bad example:
- Why the hell is our site still loading 5 seconds from Australia?!
- Ivan Ivanovich, we discussed this and decided that embedding a blog is a priority.
- It can't be, I'll fire everyone!
Good example:
- Look, here is the summary in the meeting chat, here you yourself put a like. And page loading is scheduled right after the blog.
- Oh, really. It was like that, I'm sorry. I'll go and watch the record of the rally, remember why I decided that.
Summary and checklist of an effective video meeting
We made a checklist for you with these life hacks for collective decision making - copy it into your notebook or planner:
Every day:
- Start the day with a team call
Before the rally:
- Submit a daily agenda
- No extra people?
At the rally:
- Brainstorm - in a video conference
- Who takes notes?
- Ask the seniors last
After the rally:
- Assign responsible persons and deadlines
- Send everything agreed in writing to everyone
And here the checklist can be downloaded and printed - in a beautiful design from the checklist designer 365done.ru .
We confer in Mind because it's simple and the security measures are thoughtful and clear. Try it - it's free. And let the speed of decision-making in your organization increase!