Meeting smart

Set to take oath as West Bengal CM for the third term, Mamata Banerjee is known to be informal in formal meetings. For today’s e-meetings in a WFH scenario, a career coach shares strategies to keep your team engaged

Meeting smart

Mamata Banerjee, who is back in power in West Bengal for the third consecutive term, is known for her informal style. Pic Courtesy/PTI

The news of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s thumping victory sent shockwaves across the country this weekend. Live on television to share his thoughts on the campaign, poll strategist Prashant Kishor revealed that Banerjee didn’t shy away from including food in her meetings. In fact, they were incomplete without samosas and cutlets. While managers may not be able to execute the same method of bonding in today’s remote working setup, we invited career coach Rhea Punjabi to share tips on how to make meetings more interactive. Bring in art: Doodling is a nice way of bonding. Team members can share the same screen and doodle together. To incorporate this, use virtual software such as AutoDraw.

Rhea Punjabi

Facilitate fun activities: Whenever you organise any activity, Punjabi asserts that it is important to incorporate visual, auditory, reading, writing and kinesthetic elements. A popular activity from the coach’s personal experience is getting employees to pick a letter from their name and run around the house to find an object that corresponds to it. “So, if it’s the letter P, I can pick up a pen. Then, everyone can be sent to breakout rooms to discuss the meaning of the object in their lives. To make it fun, you can ask a person to place the object on their head and wear it as an imaginary hat and share what they feel about the object,” Punjabi shares.

Mind maps for brainstorming: Instead of typical excel sheets that can get boring, Punjabi advocates the use of mind maps via virtual whiteboards. Tools for this include MindMeister, Ayoa, Microsoft Whiteboard, and Miro, which enables you to share ideas in real-time. Organise catch-up sessions: Hang out virtually over a cup of coffee on a weekly basis and discuss things other than work.

Share your playlist: You can use a platform like Discord to share music that you like. It’s a great stress-buster, Punjabi says, adding, “You can create a thread of music that everyone likes, organise a meeting for an hour or so, and then just play songs. On Discord, people can even watch videos together. So, if your work is video-based, then it becomes a community learning experience as it allows you to pause the video and discuss views on audio.”

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