This article is the second in a series designed to put practical, actionable strategies in your hands to increase the performance of global virtual teams. In the last article we reviewed tips and techniques to build trust, and to set strong guidelines around communication and response times. In this article we’ll continue the discussion with a focus on successful virtual team meetings.

Have the first meeting in person, if possible

This is the best case scenario, one that many of my clients cannot afford to do, unfortunately. It is, however, the optimal way to give the project and team member relationships a strong start. A strong second place recommendation is to have at least one meeting in person, even if it isn’t the first one. The reality for many of my clients, though, is that in-person meetings are not in the money or time budget.

Have explicit meeting preparation and management

It is more difficult to follow standard meeting processes over distant locations, cultures and time zones. Take the time to state the meeting preparation expectations for the project. Find the best time zones for the team and alternate between them. They should still be regularly scheduled. For example, in a recent client engagement involving a US company expanding in an Asian market, we had meetings every Tuesday, but alternated between 7 am and 7 pm US CST. We were all equally inconvenienced, and that is the only fair way to do it.

Other quick tips include emphasizing punctuality by having meetings consistently start and end on time. Send out an agenda and minutes 3 days prior to and 3 days after each meeting. People do forget who is at the meeting, so repeat names during the meeting. Allow for both process and content discussions. A process check can be as easy as a “How are we doing?” during the meeting, a quick email survey, or one on one discussions afterwards. At the end of each meeting, evaluate it. Since you cannot see body language, proactively monitor meeting reactions and performance, and address problems promptly.


Determining Meeting Attendees and Location

Be cognizant of when it is appropriate to include certain attendees and locations. Sue Karch, Senior Vice President of Risk Management for Northern Trust, recently published corporate guidelines for global meeting etiquette. In it she asks that “when planning a meeting, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the topic have relevance or should it have relevance beyond my local office(s)?
• Would the best outcome be achieved if attendance were limited to Partners in my local office(s)?
• Is the objective of the meeting to simply inform, or to make decisions and/or define action steps? Based on this, what is the right level of individual to have in attendance, and what is the optimal number of attendees?
• Based on the agenda, what is the likely length of the meeting?
• Is it important to be able to see materials – can they effectively be provided to attendees in advance?
• What office location is most impacted by the topic?”
  A quick review of these considerations can help to design the appropriate meeting participation.