🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

Think about a recent virtual meeting with your distributed team. Did you feel that some participants were unprepared or struggled to contribute effectively? How did this impact the meeting’s productivity?

💡 Concept

In distributed teams, assigning prework for meetings is crucial to ensure that all participants come prepared and able to contribute meaningfully. Prework helps streamline discussions, maximizes meeting efficiency, and allows for a more focused and productive use of time.

Here is how you can implement prework in your team’s meeting routines: 

ℹ️ Define clear objectives.

Clearly outline the objectives and expectations for the prework. Provide specific instructions on what needs to be reviewed or completed before the meeting. For example, “Please review the attached document and come prepared with feedback on sections 3 and 4.”

Make sure that the assigned prework is relevant to the meeting agenda and will directly benefit the discussion or decision-making process.

⌚️ Schedule prework deadlines.

Set clear deadlines for prework assignments well in advance of the meeting. Ensure that all team members understand what needs to be completed and by when. This allows everyone ample time to prepare and facilitates more productive discussions.

Communicate these deadlines using your team’s preferred communication channels, such as email or project management tools.

📑 Use collaborative tools.

Utilize collaborative tools and platforms to make the prework process simple and efficient. Share necessary documents and data through platforms like Google Drive, Microsoft 365, or ClickUp. Encourage team members to add their comments or questions directly on these platforms to make it easy to work together before the meeting.

Regularly check and update these platforms to ensure that everyone has access to the most current information.

📅 Follow up and review.

Follow up with team members to make sure that the prework has been completed. Consider starting the meeting with a brief recap of the prework and key objectives so that everyone is aligned and ready for a productive discussion.

Use this time to address any questions or clarifications needed regarding the task as well as the prework process in general.

🎬 Take Action

Try the following actions the next time you’re setting up a meeting: 

• Define objectives and provide specific instructions for the prework tasks.

• Set a clear deadline. 

• Use collaborative tools to share information and facilitate preparation.

• Double check that everyone has access to the files and other resources needed to complete the prework. 

• Follow up with team members and review key points before the meeting.

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn more about how to run effective distributed meetings in Leadplaceless. 

✅ Check In

🎁Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.

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