Organizing a Global Meeting
- Be cognizant of time zones
- Check open meeting slots prior to scheduling to ensure attendees are available
- Do not change the meeting at the last minute—it might be late in the day for some of your colleagues who have stayed up late to attend the meeting
- Ensure interactions and participation
- Choose the right technology: WebEx, conference room, lighting, display and microphone
- Break large meetings into subgroups to encourage open conversation
- Create focused sessions in a smaller groups to develop solutions
Engaging in Global, Cross-Geography and Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Be loud and clear when speaking
- Do not avoid meetings, especially with your remote organization
- Ask questions throughout—do not save them for the end
- When on video conference, behave just as you would during a face-to-face meeting—with professionalism
- Prepare for cultural differences and anticipate them at the front end—they’re a lot harder to deal with after the fact
- Be cognizant of all diversity: gender, functional, seniority, culture and personality-based
- Be mindful of differences
- Don’t obsess over them
- Set expectations
- Build relationships
- Be creative with conflict
- Be flexible
- incentivize colleagues to step outside their cultural comfort zones
When Leading a Meeting:
- As a host, create an agenda
- For recurring meetings, share the agenda a few business days prior to the meeting
- As a host, provide sufficient lead time to review the meeting material
- Recap the action items before closing the meeting
- Ensure minutes and follow up action items are distributed within one business day
- Leverage Box repositories for minutes and relevant materials
- Define the goals of the meeting
When Attending as a Participant:
- As a participant, review the agenda and meeting material prior to attending
- Do not engineer solutions in status meetings
- If you receive an invitation, be courteous by accepting or declining the invitation on time
- If declining, please provide a related explanation
- If declining, identify a possible delegate
- Try to find out what the meeting is all about—prepare notes in advance
- Always have a notepad and pen (or your personal computer to take notes)
- Keep your phone on silent or vibrate mode
- Do not take phone calls during meetings unless it is an emergency
- Be loud and clear when speaking
- Show up on time—do not waste anyone else’s time by not being punctual
- Do not multitask and interrupt speakers
For a Virtual Meeting:
- According to a survey by Raindance Communications
- US company that provides online meeting, web conferencing and teleconferencing services.
- 70% of people do unrelated work
- 50% read or send emails
- 36% mute the call to talk to someone else on a video call
So give your full attention to the meeting
- Find a quiet spot when videoconferencing
- Speak clearly and concisely in a virtual meeting
- There may be a delay on a video conference so allow a pause for response/questions
