{"id":6861,"date":"2023-03-13T03:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=6861"},"modified":"2023-03-03T16:56:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T00:56:30","slug":"onsitemeetingfail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2023\/03\/onsitemeetingfail\/","title":{"rendered":"In-person \/ on-site work &#038; meetings automatically better than online? NOPE!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/council_transparent.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"461\" height=\"212\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/council_transparent.jpg\" alt=\"image of a panel discussion\" class=\"wp-image-5010\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/council_transparent.jpg 461w, https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/council_transparent-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Quit saying that to be productive, staff &#8211; employees, consultants and volunteers &#8211; need to be onsite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quit saying that, to be productive, we need to return to onsite meetings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quit saying that, to build trust and to be more personal, we need to be talking face-to-face in the same room.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop it with that <strong><em>nonsense<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do you think face-to-face meetings are more productive or are better ways to build trust in a team? I have had enough time wasted in onsite meetings to last a LIFETIME.&nbsp;I have sat in more onsite, face-to-face meetings than I can count where <em>nothing<\/em> was accomplished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not saying never to have onsite meetings. I\u2019m not saying that people shouldn\u2019t ever work together in the same time and place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this assumption that onsite meetings are somehow automatically better, more productive, have more personality, allow people to get to know each other better, is just BOLLOCKS.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your team doesn\u2019t trust each other, if your team feels it can\u2019t rely on certain members, if your team isn\u2019t communicating well with each other, none of that is going to be automatically solved by changing from online to onsite meetings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>None of what makes for an effective meeting automatically happens just because you are meeting onsite. NONE of it. Quit implying that it does.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Effective meetings, whether onsite or online: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>have clear agendas that are communicated before the start.&nbsp;<\/li><li>have an agenda that is results-oriented\/mission-focused.<\/li><li>start at the time they say they will and they end at the time they say they will.&nbsp;<\/li><li>are effectively facilitated so that attendees stick to the agenda and scheduled decisions are made.&nbsp;<\/li><li>allow everyone to speak within the time frame given.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The meeting facilitator needs to have recognition from members to be the person to remind attendees if the discussion period for an agenda item is finished now and it\u2019s time for a decision, or when to table a decision for the next meeting. The facilitator needs to be empowered to remind people who didn\u2019t read the meeting materials beforehand that, in the future, they need to do that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Case in point: I served on a board for three years. Our meetings became vastly more productive when we moved ONLINE because of the pandemic.  I even got to know some of the board members more in our online meetings &#8211; the side chats on Zoom allowed truly EVERYONE to express their opinion, even their humor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meeting face-to-face, in the same place and time, does not magically create better communications and does not automatically create a sense of team. If your online meetings aren&#8217;t working out the way you want, the problem is probably not that you are all online. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"187\" height=\"242\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/vvbooklittle.jpg\" alt=\"cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices\" class=\"wp-image-831\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/vvbooklittle.jpg\"><\/a>Want to learn more how to effectively work with people online?&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/vvbook.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>The&nbsp;<\/em>Last&nbsp;<em>Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. The lessons here are focused on engaging volunteers, but all are easily adapted for working with paid staff. If you want to learn how to leverage online tools to communicate with and support volunteers, whether those volunteers are mostly online (virtual volunteering) or they provide service mostly onsite at your organization, and to dig deep into the factors for success in supporting online volunteers and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/vvbook.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>The&nbsp;<\/em>Last&nbsp;<em>Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It\u2019s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/donate_icon_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4685\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/\">my web site<\/a>&nbsp;and would like to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/me\/payme.shtml\">support<\/a>&nbsp;the time that went into&nbsp;researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work),&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/me\/payme.shtml\"><strong>here is how you can help<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quit saying that to be productive, staff &#8211; employees, consultants and volunteers &#8211; need to be onsite.&nbsp; Quit saying that, to be productive, we need to return to onsite meetings.&nbsp; Quit saying that, to build trust and to be more personal, we need to be talking face-to-face in the same room.&nbsp; Stop it with that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[135,196,289,2262,334],"class_list":["post-6861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","tag-culture","tag-facilitation","tag-management","tag-meetings","tag-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-1MF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6861"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7094,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861\/revisions\/7094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}