Feelings Zoomed out? Here’s a list of 25 practices from @UFE to make online meetings/trainings more engaging, equitable, & effective.

We're still learning. What would you add?

1. Trim your agenda down to allow time for participation. Help yourself prioritize by asking the question, what do I want to change as a result of this meeting?
2. Before creating your agenda ask yourself, why is this content important for these particular participants in this particular moment? Unsure? Ask them beforehand!
3. Start with a grounding activity like a breathing exercise to increase focus and zone out distraction. Life and the Internet are full of them.
4. Plan extra time in your agenda for mini-tutorials. Before using each new tool like the comments in Zoom or Google Docs, walk participants through step-by-step.
5. Make your space intergenerational and expansive! Allow interventions from children, family members & elders with whom others might be sharing space.
6. Invite people to keep their cameras on. This helps establish everyone as a teacher and a learner.
7. Follow all conversations by asking if anyone without video would like to contribute. Ask for people by name.
8. Use a warm-up question near the start, like “Why is this topic important to you?” This helps establish that everyone has a place to speak on the subject at hand.
9. Divide into pairs using breakout rooms. This allows everyone to respond to an important question within limited time.
10. With a larger group try a visualization activity. This invites participant engagement using their own imaginations & life experience.
11. Invite people to use the chat box. Have your co-facilitator monitor comments to address needs and elevate comments and questions.
12. Who says you can't still do an energizer over video call? On the other side of the screen are whole bodies, invite people to use them!
13. During longer meetings, plan frequent breaks. Encourage people to get up, stretch, walk, drink water, and snack.
14. Pose open-ended, rather than closed questions. This helps move your space from a monologue to a dialogue.
15. Ask a particular person to respond and then have them pass it to someone who hasn't spoken yet. This prevents prolonged silence, which can lead to distraction.
16. Establish an order at the beginning. Have that be your "circle" for everytime you want everyone to respond to a given question or prompt.
17. Close all other tabs and windows before participating in an online meeting. This will help you focus on spending quality time with your friends and colleagues.
18. Minimize words on slides and other documents. Invite participants to read or to listen, but never at the same time.
19. Avoid information overload. Ask yourself, what is the information that is most essential for the particular purpose of this meeting?
20. Find creative ways to deliver information, not just slides with text. Try a photo, a poem, a quote, a sound graph...
21. Before leaping into action, first assure that your group has worked together to name the problem and explore some of its causes.
22. Try following the sequence what, so what, now what. What is the situation we are in? So what might be causing it? Now what do we do about it?
23. Don't start to prioritize and critique with your group until all ideas are on the table. This helps address unequal power relations between participants.
24. At every video meeting try a new practice. Challenge yourself. Afterward, ask people how it went!
25. Allow evaluation at the end of the meeting. What worked for you? What might you do differently? Use this to inform future meetings.