Spooky Stories & Lessons Learned
With Halloween around the corner, this is the perfect time to engage in a classic Halloween pastime: sharing spooky stories. This post is dedicated to mysterious and unusual meeting support stories; but fear not, the lessons learned should lessen the effects of these frightful stories. Continue if you dare…
The Ghosted Presenter
Picture this: It’s a meeting that includes an hour on the agenda to discuss critical safety data and emerging risks that may affect various organizations. All the participants are anxiously awaiting the presentation, knowing the presenter is a busy person with very limited availability. Finally, it is time for the presentation … but the presenter is nowhere to be found. The meeting host frantically searches for the presenter only to discover they were never included on the meeting invitation. Suspenseful minutes pass as the host tries to reach the presenter, but ultimately all hope is lost when the meeting host announces the presenter will not be able to present the significant safety data and risks.
Luckily, there are ways to avoid this horror! Always verify all presenters and key participants are included in the meeting invitation. A quick lookover of the distribution list can save a meeting. Another way to mitigate this scenario is to have a backup presenter in case the primary presenter encounters issues joining the meeting.
The Disastrous Agenda
It is a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon, and you have big plans for the weekend. Your team leader schedules a last-minute meeting after 3 p.m. No big deal, the meeting should be over before the end of the day. You peek at the meeting agenda and realize there are 10 agenda items packed into a single hour. The meeting quickly becomes rushed and disorganized. The most important topics are barely mentioned and your team feels overwhelmed. Much like the naïve lead in a horror movie who runs into the abandoned, dark house to escape danger, the team lead insists the team forge ahead past the end of the meeting time. Dread sets in and frustration mounts as participants begin to feel the meeting is a waste of time.
Learn from this disaster. Prioritize agenda items and ensure each item has a realistic time allocation. Avoid cramming too many topics in too little time! You may also consider saving important topics for their own unique meetings or for the beginning of a new workday so discussion will not be rushed. Also remember to respect the meeting timeline to help keep participants engaged. A well-paced, reasonable agenda can help you avoid the issues described in the previous scenario.
The Accidental Broadcast
During an important virtual meeting, participants break out to form private brainstorming sessions. One participant forgets to mute themselves, allowing all other participants to hear their brainstorming session. Like a nightmare you can’t wake up from, the meeting software does not allow the host to mute participants so candid opinions, confidential discussions, and critiques are heard by all. This can lead to awkward confrontations and potentially damaged reputations.
Avoid this mortifying mistake as the meeting host by choosing a meeting format that allows you to have some control over mute functions, or make sure all meeting participants are familiar with the features of the meeting software. If you are not the meeting host, you can doublecheck your mute and audio settings before breaking out into small groups. It is also best practice to remain muted while you are not speaking.
The Vanishing Act
You are virtually participating in a hybrid meeting with both in-person and remote participants. Suddenly, the connection to the virtual participants is lost, like a storm knocking out the power on a dark night. The in-person participants continue, not knowing the connection has been lost. The group was about to make an important decision, and many virtual participants had strong opinions to share. The unaware in-person group, hearing no objections or other opinions from the virtual participants, decides to move forward with a resolution. Turns out, the meeting software is experiencing a nationwide outage. You, and others, begin to feel excluded.
Prevent this type of disappearance by ensuring all technology is functioning properly before the start of the meeting. Unfortunately, nationwide outages cannot be helped but you can better prepare by having back-up meeting software and a meeting facilitator manage the virtual portion of the meeting to catch issues immediately.
Conquering Meeting Support Nightmares
Although scary meeting support stories might make for entertaining anecdotes, it is important to remember they are based on true stories with real consequences. But just like in every good story, there is a lesson to learn. By implementing the best practices and lessons learned in these chilling tales you can put your nightmare meetings to rest, once and for all. Whether you are in the Government or private sector, contact PAI Consulting to avoid these haunting situations and learn how we help keep meeting disturbances at bay!
Happy Halloween!
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