Stop Zoning Out in Zoom Meetings" Sarah Gershman
https://hbr.org/2020/05/stop-zoning-out-in-zoom-meetings
Key Quote: "In virtual meetings — and especially on conference calls — the Ringelmann effect (the bigger the group, the less responsibility each individual feels to ensure success) is magnified. When you are not in the room to help "pull the rope" for a meeting, you might feel less motivated to listen and participate. The less you feel needed, the more distracted you will become, and the less you will give to the meeting. And the less you give, the less fulfilling the experience".
I admit it! I check my email and do other things during our toastmaster meetings. And sometimes I lose track of who said what in the meeting because I was not paying attention! Heaven forbid I miss the question to me for table topics, or drift off when I am the evaluator, or worse yet, be mistaken for having left the meeting! As the last article for this project, I decided to focus on our listening skills as toastmasters. With the recent articles and discussions about zoom fatigue, I found this article interesting because it gives some tips on how to make those meetings more fulfilling for you the listener. The article offers five strategies to listen more effectively during virtual meetings. First is to define exactly what you hope to learn from the call. Sometimes this is easy if you are speaking or evaluating but if not identifying what you might be looking for before you join the meeting helps to focus your attention. Second, Gershman suggests acknowledging previous statements and not repeating or rehashing earlier points. This is especially useful during group input for evaluations. But you have to listen to make sure you don't rehash and repeat! There are three other tips but I found the recommendation to have a notepad handy to write down wandering thoughts or better yet ideas that you hope to learn from. Listening is a skill that is learned and can be improved. By adopting some of these strategies you will hopefully find less fatigue and more enjoyment on our toastmaster zoom meetings!
