THE FUZE TEAM BLOG: Join the real-time conversation

Online Meeting Etiquette for Effective Decision Making

Posted by vividh

The code of conduct or etiquette for a formal meeting involves everything from your dress code, behavior, attitude and style of presentation. Meetings that are online today with less scope for people to see each other face to face surprisingly haven’t made things any different. The etiquette of having an effective meeting online is something all professionals must be acquainted with. These online business meetings demand certain behavior and by putting into practice the same, it indicates the respect you have for your co-employees present in the web conference that facilitates worthwhile outcomes and decisions. This indeed does justify the purpose of such meetings.

While in an online meeting it is advised that concentration should be totally on the topic that is being discussed without frequently being tempted to open other desktop applications. Since a computer could open scope for us to multitask between other applications and a web meeting, the very concept of doing so while in an online meeting is considered indecent or an undesirable etiquette. By doing so, there is a chance that you could get distracted from the main stream of discussion and may need clarifications on and off . This could send uncomfortable vibes to all the others participating in the web meeting. At times this irresponsible behavior could give people a feeling that you are disinterested or are not giving the issue genuine importance and thought it should get.

The meeting could happen in different ways. It could be a simple chat session amongst a group of people through the web conference facility or it could be a video conference where one gets to see the other especially if it is a meeting involving only two people. Video conference interviews are very common and an ideal way of knowing a person personally even if they are miles apart. While in an online meeting where people from different places communicate through the voice chat option, the basic etiquette for the listeners is to mute their own voice so that their mic doesn’t catch all the different sounds in their environment be it an office or home. This could cause disturbance in the thought flow of the individual who is speaking at the other end.

Following the required rules that could enhance the effectiveness of your online meeting becomes inevitable especially when the topic discussed aims at arriving at a substantial decision that could help. The World Wide Web consists of numerous softwares that could help you install the set up for a web conference. After installing one, you could run the executable file and get ready to be accessed and access all your colleagues on a web meeting that you could have scheduled. Numerous free softwares are available but to make the best choice, a survey could help. The mic, speaker, headphones, web cam and the basic conferencing software are the minimum requirements along with the best etiquette for an online meeting to take place effectively. Improvement in technology should in no way take a toll of our behavior or manners in any given situation.