But platforms continue to be riddled with connectivity and reliability issues. Completely integrated tools that don’t rely on a third party are few and far between, Palomino reminds us, writing in Smart Brief for Leadership.

However, you can make plenty of tweaks to take your video meetings to the next level and make your team feel more at home in the world of virtual meeting spaces. Palomino recommends:

Cut background noise

Sound is often sacrificed for the visual components of a virtual meeting place. It doesn’t have to be that way. Set an example for your team by using Bluetooth or noise-cancelling headphones to eliminate surrounding chatter and encourage focus.

Do your research on resources that might improve the audio quality of your meetings, including an external mic. The hardware you and your team use can also make a world of difference in your attitude toward work.

Introduce rituals

It takes roughly seven repetitions to drive a message home. It falls to you, as the leader, to find ways of keeping your employees energised, focused and happy. That’s no easy feat when some days feel like eight hours of staring into a webcam.

Get into the habit of keeping meetings short: 15 mins for a stand-up call, 30 mins for a catch-up and nothing longer than 45 mins. In addition to ensuring the purpose and agenda of each call are set ahead of logging in, allowing yourself less time ensures that you remain on task in your discussions and get to the points that matter.

On the calls themselves, the tone that you set can make or break the experience for everyone involved. Whatever personality you bring to real-life meetings is doubly needed in virtual ones. Some team members might be naturally inclined to wear funny things or crack jokes during a meeting. Encourage those who are less outgoing to add a background that invites questions or makes a statement about their interests.

Whatever rituals you propose, lead by example. If you’re not afraid to make yourself vulnerable and you don’t take yourself too seriously, even on the most ‘important’ calls, you’ll be putting your team at ease to do the same.

Reassess your physical environment

Aside from adjusting processes and workplace culture, some shifts can and should be implemented by your individual team members. Encourage them to evaluate the set-up of their work area. Clear away clutter and distractions. Even if they aren’t visible onscreen, they can crowd your mind and contribute to stress. You can also help your employees invest in their own healthy at-home work habits by subsidising materials like standing desks or walking pads.

And don’t neglect your physical relationship to your workspace. Posture is an enormously important yet under-observed factor in physical performance. To keep your team’s spines in check, resist booking video meetings back-to-back and take breaks for quick reset exercises.

Embrace the growing pains

Learn to appreciate that there is an art to holding a video meeting. Organising new habits for your team means continuous trial and error. Operating in a remote workplace demands more organisation, advance planning, creativity and collaboration than ever before. As you implement the practices that you feel are right for your team, be receptive to their feedback – a screen can’t hide facial expressions. An open dialogue will increase the chances of creating video meeting experiences that your team actually looks forward to.

Stefanie Palomino is chief product officer and general manager of ROOM3D from The TMRW Foundation. This article is excerpted from ‘Use these 4 strategies to make online meetings bearable’ from Smart Brief on Leadership.

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