Offices around the world are swapping virtual meetings for in-person events. Meeting software has advanced rapidly in recent years as innovative digital tools make these meetings more effective. A key concern many professionals have is improving engagement in virtual meetings.
The poll feature is the ideal solution. A poll in a meeting can be either open-ended or multiple-choice. Answers to the poll are available and visible in real time. Using the innovative poll feature encourages participant interaction and can massively boost engagement. Here are five easy ways to make use of this feature.
Icebreakers for Your Team
Are you starting every virtual meeting with an interactive icebreaker? Icebreakers are low-pressure activities that let all participants speak and contribute at the start of a meeting. Icebreakers can be short games or on-screen polls using the poll feature. For your next virtual icebreaker, ask how many people in the meeting have cats, dogs, other pets, or no pets to pave the way for cute pet pictures.
Incorporating icebreakers gives everyone a sense of having a seat at the table in a virtual meeting. Speaking in an icebreaker at the beginning of a meeting makes it easier for participants to contribute to the meeting's more essential topics later. Finally, icebreakers help create bonds between remote team members.
Make Meetings Interactive
The most significant advantage of using the poll feature is that it instantly makes participants interact with the meeting. In virtual meetings, interaction is vital because a screen makes it easy to receive information passively. Adding a poll reminds participants that they're part of the meeting rather than observers.
For example, say a virtual meeting is about brainstorming more efficient ways to handle a particularly tedious recurring task. Opening the floor for ideas right away may create less engagement. Instead, a poll can ask participants which part of the task is most tedious for them to create a more accessible springboard into solution planning.
Help Create Agendas
Participants will likely engage in a virtual meeting that speaks to their concerns. Instead of creating a fixed agenda before the meeting begins, try presenting topics as a poll.
The topic with the most votes can form the bulk of the meeting, while topics with no votes can be safely removed or tabled for a later date. Polls help tailor meetings to the most pressing concerns to boost efficiency. As a bonus, participants will naturally have more interest and engagement with the virtual meeting because they had a hand in creating the meeting agenda.
Team Building Exercises
Open-ended polls are the ideal quick team-building exercise. These polls give just enough structure to guide discussions, and typing into a box is less intimidating for many people than speaking to a large group over a webcam.
Asking for remote work tips and tricks, or tips and tricks for any aspect of the job, is a great way to boost teamwork. In an in-person office setting, these small tips would be passed on in person, but there's no reason you can't reap the same benefit virtually.
Make Random for Honest Feedback
One smart way to use the poll feature is to gather feedback on a proposal immediately. You can also use a poll to test how your team may respond to changes. If you start a poll for feedback in a meeting, turn on the random or anonymous feature to ensure that you get reliable results.
Liberally use the poll feature to make virtual meetings more interactive. This versatile tool is critical to remote team building, and it can be used for anything from serious agenda topics to icebreakers to instant feedback.
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