Covid 19 has us all scrambling to make everything we do virtual. Writing this blog is a break from me turning my college classes and other trainings into virtual formats for next week! Are you finding yourself more depressed about everything going on than you thought you would? (My spring break trip to Disney was cancelled. My kids’ Boy Scout High Adventure Sea Base is postponed. And of course no school… I’ll admit, I am really bummed out.) My own feelings made me start thinking about how to bring some joy back into the lives of our coworkers.

Here are my 5 ways to make virtual meetings more fun and maybe turn them into breaks from the downward spiral we are all experiencing. You can get work done while still having some lighter moments. We all need to laugh and find reasons to smile.

If you normally start your meeting with “Hi, how are the kids” type questions, don’t forget to still do this when you go virtual. Maintaining connection is key to keeping teams moving forward despite distance. Be more creative than “How are you doing?” We have all tired of that one! If you are the team leader, hop on the call a few minutes early and greet everyone as they come on just like a real meeting. Don’t all sit on awkward mute until the clock magically turns over to “start.”

2. Pick an accent for the meeting

You don’t need to be great at it. In fact, it’s funnier when you aren’t! Challenge the group to go Southern, Irish, British, Australian, Brooklyn, etc. You can even let the participants choose and see if you can guess the accent.

3. Choose your favorite character or personality

If accents aren’t your thing, channel your favorite character for a meeting and see what happens! Wouldn’t talking about contingency plans be better if Hermione, Rocky Balboa, the Godfather and the Nanny were having the conversation?

4. Play with “stickers.”

This is not my area of expertise, but if I had young people on my team, I would ask them how to use apps to give everyone animal faces or mustaches or something to have a laugh.

5. Take meme breaks.

Tell everyone to bring a funny meme or tik tok video to the call. Before each new agenda item, share one!

You get the idea. Be creative in thinking of ways to keep meetings a little lighter and more fun if you can. Even if your company culture tends to be more serious, these are times that call for out of the ordinary! Let your meeting be just the break your team needed before they go back to searching the internet for the last bar of soap and roll of toilet paper!

Moving Image Consulting’s mission is to be of service and still provide great value even if we can’t be live and in person. Please share this blog, hop on the youtube channel for more great tips on virtual meetings. Check out my blog on virtual meeting “how to’s.” Call me! It’s getting lonely over here. 630-234-1392