With the majority of workers now back in their offices or working a hybrid schedule, conventional wisdom says there is nothing better for team collaboration than a face-to-face setting. There are lingering concerns regarding remote work like social isolation, lack of engagement, and challenges with direct supervision.
If you already work on a globally distributed team, you likely find virtual meetings using collaboration tools the norm. Even working locally, with the on-demand gig economy, many professionals find themselves on teams with people they have never met. But still, it works—often very well.
With today’s cloud-based tools, you can easily create a rich team communication experience via high-definition video, audio conferencing, content sharing, and web collaboration—virtually anywhere, on any network or device.
So, here are 10 ways virtual meetings may produce better experiences and results than conventional in-person meetings.
1. More Focus on Business Content
In a virtual setting, the focus is on the business content at hand—what is being discussed and shown—not on the physical presence, appearance, and distracting behaviors of those sitting around us or the environment surrounding or passing by the meeting room.
2. Higher Participation Rates
Your results may vary, but some team members may feel more apt to contribute to the virtual conversation (via voice, text, or content sharing) than a physical meeting. This helps mitigate the focus of ‘all eyes,’ which can be intimidating and yield silence among those less than extroverted.
3. Fewer Logistical Challenges
Virtual meetings require less planning for location and travel logistics, can be set up more quickly, and can take place anywhere without travel costs (not to mention being a greener option).
4. Less Disruption
People can be added and dropped as needed quickly; participants can arrive late or leave early with minimal, if any, disruption to the group. In contrast, it is relatively complex (if not impossible) to physically bring in ad-hoc participants on the fly.
5. Increased Diversity of Ideas
With modern collaboration tools, you have more ready access to collective knowledge, specialized skills, and creativity regardless of where your people are located—even if they are mobile or traveling. Meanwhile, co-located team members may have a more common experience, culture, knowledge, or background, which may seriously limit the diversity of input.
6. Reduced Stress
When your team members don’t have to endure daily commuting to and from the office, their moods may be lighter, and stress levels may be lower. This may lead to happier people coming together to accomplish common goals rather than thinking about traffic jams and crowded transit systems.
7. Dynamic Content Sharing
Traditionally, face-to-face meetings are often limited to predefined content immediately at hand, whereas in a virtual setting, anyone can instantly share relevant content. Dynamically sharing digital content is hard to replicate in a face-to-face team setting.
8. Minimal Side Conversations
The inevitable virtual side conversations via the text chat backchannel are far less disruptive than the physical passing of notes or distracting whispered conversations in a meeting room. How often in face-to-face meetings have we heard someone call out, “People, let’s have one meeting in the room, please!”. With virtual meetings, that problem is largely alleviated.
9. Fewer Germs
Given the cold and flu season, no one has ever caught a bug from attending a virtual meeting. Your workforce may remain healthier and more productive with fewer sick days.
10. No Fighting over Conference Rooms
And… being virtual means you don’t have to find and book that scarce meeting room and ensure enough chairs!
Embracing Virtual Collaboration for Improved Team Performance
For those who have used them, today’s collaboration tools can re-create a face-to-face scenario’s richness, immediacy, and immersive nature—and potentially deliver a lot more on other less apparent dimensions but still have a real impact.
We can now break through the limitations of the conventional “walled” meeting room by seamlessly including those who are mobile, off-site, in other countries, or even on different continents—tapping the collective skills, diversity, expertise, and authority of the greater community.
Plus, teams thrive on relevant content and information that can be shared seamlessly in a virtual setting to enable easier information sharing, faster decision-making, and real-time content collaboration that is difficult to replicate in a traditional meeting room scenario.
TCI designs, deploys, and supports the communications and collaboration tools that will connect your remote, hybrid, and in-person teams. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
