Online meetings really can be engaging and productive. Done well, "together time" is interactive, energizing, focused, and purposeful.

What gets in the way of that?

What we now know as "Zoom-Fatigue" is real.

Online meetings on any platform can tend to be "flat" - oriented toward sequential, two-way interaction - whether two or many people are involved. Virtual group meetings - large and small - typically need to be shorter than in-person group meetings, so how do you best manage competing needs for attention, connection, and achievement under that pressure?

Absent deliberate process design and purposeful use of appropriate technology, people may be more likely to withhold input – especially controversial yet valuable ideas – in a group session. Even when using breakout rooms for group sessions, a formidable challenge is to invite and sustain more active, critical-thinking, creative, and full participation. Familiar interpersonal communication patterns and power dynamics can readily override and inhibit the desired quality of collaborative exchange.

What can be better than this?

As an expert in collaborative process design and facilitation, I've added MIRO BOARDS to my group work to enhance sessions with essential focus, color, dimension, and interactivity. Meeting participants can engage with the boards during and between meetings. Successive meetings build on one another, with transparency about process and progress. Participants can work together - synchronously and asynchronously - on what is set in motion in break-out groups and a whole meeting, sharing generative and responsive ideas, documentation, and outcomes.

Images you see here are of multi-session MIRO boards I created for actual clients.

The tool, itself, isn't the miracle. But integrating this tool into meeting design and facilitation sure can help make miracles happen.