The seven sins of meetings with remote participants
2 min readDec 17, 2019
- Thou shalt not forget about the agenda or deviate from it — It’s a lot of work to stay up late (or early) and dial into a meeting. An agenda published at least a day before makes it worth while. If people can’t attend, they can add the info you need from them to the agenda.
- Thou shalt not cancel meetings shortly before they start — This isn’t “giving people back the time”, this is “annoying people who stayed up late to have this meeting”.
- Thou shalt not all speak at the same time — Nothing is more grating when you are sitting at home late night and have a cacophony of people for the first 5 minutes talking about what the cafeteria is serving. Sure you can mute, but how would you know when to tune in again?
- Thou shalt not keep your mic on when you are typing — Look, we all love some breakbeat and drum and base. But not while trying to follow a meeting. This also applies to heavy breathing and sneezing. Or eating.
- Thou shalt not abandon the chat — Anyone who has trouble connecting won’t be able to tell you. But often you can already type something in the chat. As a person not in the room it is also daunting to try to interject, so often people leave feedback in the chat instead.
- Thou shalt not assume people can see your presentation clearly — or at all Bumping up fonts, not presenting intrinsic and detailed flowcharts is the idea. Imagine blurry things all over them. Even better: a shared slide deck so people can see it on their own machine.
- Thou shalt not scribble on whiteboards and assume people can follow — Digital meeting systems are sophisticated and whilst Teams f.e. can make handwritten notes readable and even “see” through people blocking whiteboards, taking notes in the tool on screen includes everyone.
