Online Meetings that Matter: A Guide for Managers of Remote Teams

As an increasing number of organisations enable their employees to work from anywhere and as the number of distributed companies grows, online meetings are part of business as usual.

While the trend in the office space has been to cut down on meetings to increase productivity, remote teams can benefit from a healthy meeting rhythm. During online meetings we can celebrate our humanity and spontaneity - and we can iron out those misunderstandings that creep in when our communication is restricted to the written word.

ONLINE MEETINGS THAT MATTER is a guide for managers of remote teams and those introducing an "office optional" approach. With a focus on strengthening the relationships between team members and using technology to support your team's work, this book covers a range of ways in which members of remote teams can gather in the online space, as well as how individuals can prepare to make the most out of their valuable time together.

This is a practical book that will help managers and their teams reconsider not just how they run their meetings, but their whole approach to online collaboration. Drawing on the wealth of many years of experience in the remote space, Pilar Orti, the founder of Virtual Not Distant, distills her knowledge of running online meetings and coaching managers to do the same, in this actionable and straightforward guide.

Still wondering if this book is for you?This book is for you if you are the manager or leader of a non-colocated team, where working schedules overlap for several hours, ideally by no less than four.

You might be making the transition to flexible working or 'agile working', and finding that your usual meeting schedule and formats are no longer possible, because you cannot gather everyone together in the same room.

You might be worried also about people's work becoming misaligned, losing team spirit, and people feeling disconnected from the work, the organisation and from one another – so you've moved some of your team meetings online.

You might be a new manager, getting ready for your first online team meeting; you might be an aspiring manager, discovering what your job might entail. Or maybe you are a team member who understands the potential of online meetings, and wants to make sure your team makes the most out of them.

You might even be a meeting facilitator or a coach, looking for ways to help teams and managers take ownership of their online meetings.

And if you are someone who organises meetings for online communities, you will find aspects of this book relevant too.

Finally, this book is for you if your team both needs and wants to gather together online. Some teams are happy to communicate on a one-to-one basis or through text, but if you think gathering together online as a team will help you to advance the work and create collaborative relationships, this book is for you.