Lead Better Zoom Calls: Tips and Tricks from a Leading Experience Designer

Does it seem like people are distracted and not actively engaging on your Zoom calls? It’s a common feeling these days.

As part of our commitment to offering professional development opportunities to our community, itrek recently hosted two sessions to help Network members lead better video meetings and events in an academic or work context. The timing couldn’t have been better, as many itrek Leaders attended just prior to hosting their own itrek reunions and virtual trek sessions.

Titled “Transforming your Leadership from IRL to URL,” the sessions were hosted by Jenny Sauer-Klein, a sought-after experience designer who’s been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc. and Tim Ferriss’s book “Tools of Titans.” In her pair of exclusive events for itrek Network Leaders, she shared strategies for transforming a virtual meeting or event into an engaging experience, as well as technical tips for running a smooth Zoom session.

Jenny believes three core elements are required for creating meaningful connections during virtual events:

1. Connect Early. Many event organizers waste the first few precious minutes–when attendees are most engaged–addressing logistics or troubleshooting technical challenges; that urge should be resisted. Jenny suggests using this time to engage participants and get them to share something significant. If you miss this window, attendees will go into “passive observer” mode, making it harder to get them to speak up and share later.

Jenny recommends making the most of a virtual event’s initial moments by playing music, asking participants to change their screen names to something fun or creative, or sharing a prompt (e.g., “What’s one thing you’re grateful for?”) and then narrating responses to the larger group.

She also suggested these potential icebreaker questions:

• What are you celebrating in your life right now?
• What’s a highlight from your week?
• What’s something you’re looking forward to this month?
• What’s one of your favorite quotes or sayings?

2. Connect Often. You don’t need to spend a lot of time facilitating connection as long as you do it consistently throughout the event. You might ask attendees to share their takeaways immediately after a speaker, panel or presentation or use another ice-breaker after a programming break to ensure that people are still present and focused. These activities can take as little as a few minutes, so presenters needn’t choose between content and connection. 

3. Gradually Invite Deeper Levels of Vulnerability. At the beginning of your event, ask simple questions like, “What brought you here?” or “What are you hoping to get from this experience?” But as the event progresses, you can invite deeper self-disclosure. 

This can be done by asking questions that cross over from the professional to the personal, such as, “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?” or “What’s something on your bucket list and why is it important to you?”

Feedback from itrek Network members who joined the sessions has been extremely positive. One member wrote, “I walked away with strategies I can apply immediately to facilitated meetings as well as more casual check-ins.” Another wrote, “Great to see how those suggestions and tactics actually worked on me during the session. I came in expecting to zone out a bit, but the things Jenny used during the session kept me engaged.”

To learn more about Jenny’s recommended strategies and tactics for elevating virtual meetings, read her article here. You can also check out the “Culture First” podcast, where she’s interviewed on her approach to designing experiences that increase connection during the COVID era.