{"id":524,"date":"2019-06-12T09:50:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T16:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalfacilitation.net\/?p=524"},"modified":"2020-02-29T07:14:14","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T15:14:14","slug":"reading-the-virtual-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalfacilitation.net\/?p=524","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Virtual Room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a question I get asked a lot: How do you \u2018read the room\u2019 when you\u2019re meeting virtually? In other words, how can you tell whether people are tracking or checked out, where the group energy is, and when it\u2019s time for a break or some other shift? My answer: it\u2019s not actually all that different from reading the room in face-to-face settings, although we tend to think it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s stressful for a skilled in-room facilitator to imagine\nworking without the body language cues that are so familiar and so revealing, I\nknow. But I think we make this harder than it is. There\u2019s an expectation that because\nwe lose body language, a virtual meeting won\u2019t be as good as being in the room\ntogether and that it\u2019s going to be an inferior experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it doesn\u2019t have to be. Start with an engaging agenda,\nwhere people have things to do that will achieve outcomes they care about. Let\nthem create, write, draw, discuss, decide. Give them tools to support doing\nthat work at a distance. Ask good, thought-provoking questions. Then get out of\nthe way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read the room, look for the same things that you look for\nin a face-to-face gathering. The only difference is that instead of \u2018body\nlanguage,\u2019 you\u2019re tuning in more to tone of voice, evidence of activity, and\nthe clues that you can get from the collaborative tools you\u2019ve selected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are people working? Are they digging in to the things they\nneed to talk about or build? Keep tabs on how many different people are\nparticipating \u2014 just a few, or most, or pretty much everyone? If there\u2019s\nsilence, is it paired with intense creation (generating sticky notes, writing\nin a document, whatever) or is it paired with a lack of activity? If it\u2019s the\nformer, there\u2019s no problem; let them work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, if there’s a lot of silence and nothing\nseems to be happening, that\u2019s a cue that something maybe wrong. If that\u2019s what\nI notice, I will usually make a neutral observation about it and then simply\nask what’s up. That might look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m noticing that it\u2019s been quiet for a couple of minutes and I\u2019m not seeing anything show up on the shared tool we\u2019re using. Is something not working well for you that we can maybe change?\u201d I have no way of knowing why people aren’t participating unless I ask them. If I’ve created the right container, there’s enough safety that people can speak up and tell me what’s going on for them. I can then make adjustments as needed to re-engage the group, take a break, or help them tease out whatever issue is causing the block. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a sampling of responses I\u2019ve gotten to that question\nin the past, to give you an idea of what you might hear:
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