Recently earning a Certified Virtual Facilitator™ credential, we have spent countless hours researching and test driving online tools to really wow our clients. Some work great; some had a learning curve before delivering; and some aren’t worth the time. 

When looking for new collaboration tools for facilitation, we evaluate them in the following areas:

• How easy are they for everyone to use, even those who are less familiar with tech?
• How well do they integrate with common tools, such as Zoom?
• How do they help the whole team communicate, especially those who might be inclined not to participate, for any reason?
• How many fun or intriguing features do they have, to get people excited about trying them out?

Here are a few standouts to explore. 

SessionLab*

SessionLab is a planning tool for group gatherings that includes a curated library of all kinds of facilitation activities. We love these because they help people get involved without the standard practice of...

In January 2020, we’d heard of coronavirus.

In February, we’d heard it was spreading - still, it seemed, on the other side of the world.

In March, everything started to shut down. On March 30, the governor of my state (Virginia) announced a shelter-in-place order - no one should be leaving their house except for essentials.

…

In January, I wrote a series about how to run great meetings. We covered purpose, timing, acting like a good host, and conflict.

Now it’s time to revisit that with best practices for virtual meetings.

Online Meeting, Same Priorities

Most of what I’ve previously written about still applies:

• When you first decide to hold a meeting, get crystal clear on the point of the meeting - what is the purpose? The goal? Are they the same or different? Tell people! Do not keep this to yourself.

• Does this really have to be a meeting, or should it be an email? Internet memes aside, most of us would prefer to avoid a videoconference for work...