How to run remote meetings: best practice guide

Meetings aren’t always run at their best. They can be a productivity drain and, frankly, a waste of time. 

And when your workforce is remote, extra challenges come along for the ride: technology hiccups, a lack of nonverbal cues, and time zone juggling. That’s why our CEO, Job van der Voort, likes to say, "The best way to manage meetings is not to have them!"

But meetings do have their place. And when run well, they can be vital for communication and effective collaboration.

Let’s uncover how meetings fit within an effective remote-first culture. After that, Job offers expert advice for reducing the number of meetings you have.

What is asynchronous culture & why is it vital for remote work?

Asynchronous communication is exchanging information — but not at the same time. 

Think about emails or text messages. One person sends a message, and the other responds when it’s convenient.

This is a dramatic departure from traditional office culture. But it’s needed. In fact, successful remote work depends on it.

Remote work has to compensate for the following:

• Employees working from home

• Team members spread around the globe

• Flexible staff schedules

The importance of documentation in async communication

If no one on a team works together, how do they communicate?

Email isn’t the greatest choice. It’s private and not accessible to most of your team. Plus, if it’s hidden, it’s not easily searchable. 

We’ve all spent extra time probing through email threads for that one key takeaway. That’s why it’s important to develop a culture of documentation. This means writing important things down and posting them in places where everyone can find them.

Best practices for running remote meetings

Here are 10 tips for running productive meetings in remote environments:

1. Virtual commute time

Encourage participants to take a short, pre-meeting walk or exercise session to “take the place” of commuting. This helps the team mentally prepare and get in the right mindset for the meeting.

2. Silent start

Begin with a silent review of the meeting agenda or key documents involved. Take about five minutes for this. This ensures everyone is on the same page, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings popping up.

3. Rotating chairperson

Rotate which team member is the meeting chair at each meeting. This will promote engagement, provide your team with leadership opportunities, and make the meetings more unique. 

4. Emoji check-ins

Use emojis at the start of the meeting. Participants can quickly share their current mood or energy level. This light-hearted approach can build empathy and team cohesion.

5. “Two feet in” rule

Adopt a policy where participants are encouraged to fully engage in the meeting without multitasking. This can be symbolized by having both feet in the room, even though it’s virtual.

6. Focused feedback time

Set aside specific time for only constructive feedback to encourage a culture of openness and continuous improvement.

7. Meeting menu

Before the meeting, provide a “menu” of topics to be discussed. Participants can order which items they’re most interested in. Then, the host can prioritize the agenda based on those interests.

8. Tech-free minutes

Dedicate the last few minutes of the meeting to a tech-free discussion. You can even have your team turn their cameras off to reduce screen fatigue and change up the conversation.

9. Virtual background challenge

For less serious meetings or team check-ins, encourage participants to use a video background related to a shared theme. An example could be favorite vacation spots. This is a great way to spark conversation and connect as a virtual team.

10. Visual recap

Use a shared digital whiteboard to summarize action items and responsibilities at the end of the meeting. Visual recaps are great for clarity and accountability.

How to have fewer meetings

Successful async culture defaults to async and meetings become a last-resort option when you can't find any async practices as a valid substitute. They should not be your first response.

Meetings are synchronous. And as such, they aren’t the most efficient or productive use of anyone’s time. And they’re notoriously annoying. How many times has the meeting that could have been an email passed through your feed? So one major way to improve your async culture is to have fewer meetings.

Job is the Co-founder and CEO of Remote. But he also happens to have over a decade of experience leading and managing fully-remote, global teams in a fast-growth operating environment. We've collected some practical advice from him to help you learn how to reduce the number of meetings for your team members.

Never meet just to share information

“Never have a meeting just to share information. Do that by chat, email, video message with a tool like Loom, record an audio message through Yac, or even revert to snail mail if you can avoid an in-person meeting! 

Better yet: write the information somewhere centrally within a transparent database like Notion and just link to that with an FYI for relevant stakeholders.”

There's no reason for everyone to sync up just to learn something. Information sharing is one of the easiest async practices to master. Take the information and put it in a place where everyone can access it on their own time. Boom. Done.

This saves time and reduces team frustration. That's why you'll find so many quality products out there to help remote teams share information.

Never start a new recurring meeting

The best way to update or start the schedule of a recurring meeting is to remove the need to do so.

“Only do recurring meetings if you see week after week that you need to have a meeting. Make a point to reevaluate the need for that recurring meeting on a recurring basis.”

A recurring meeting is essentially a habit. And we all know how hard it is to break a habit. The best way to quit smoking is not to start in the first place. And the same applies to meetings.

Yes, sometimes you do need a recurring meeting, but these should be the exceptions rather than the rules. And you should build the assumption that this meeting isn’t indefinite into the very fabric of the meeting: the agenda.

Always have and use an agenda

A virtual meeting without an agenda is like driving to a new place without your phone or a sat-nav. You may get there eventually, but it’s going to take a lot longer and you might get a little stressed along the way. 

Meetings without agendas start slow, meander around, and often fail to accomplish nothing. It’s a poor use of synchronous time.

“Always have an agenda for a meeting, and require everyone to contribute to it, in advance.”

The agenda should be in a public place where everyone has access. Then all concerns will be dealt with efficiently in the meeting. If you want to talk about it, put it on the agenda.

But isn’t this a list of how not to have meetings? This sounds like a way to have better meetings. 

The second part of Job's advice on this point is to use the agenda to reduce your meeting times. An empty agenda gives you different information. An empty agenda tells you when to cancel a meeting.

If nothing is on the agenda a few minutes before your meeting, cancel it!

"Hi folks, I see nothing on the agenda, so I'm cancelling the meeting" “

And there you go. Fewer meetings.

See Also: if you'd like more specific advice, we have a dedicated article to guide you through effective remote-first meeting practices.

Always set time limits

Meetings without time limits could last forever. You can't afford to waste the time of your team members. Set a time limit. And make those time limits as small as possible.

“Keep your meetings to max 25 minutes and aim to end early. The five extra minutes are buffer in case you have another meeting after.”

Say no to external meetings

You may be confident with async work and successfully streamlining your meeting schedule to just the most essential meetings. 

But not all people and companies have caught up. And some of those external collaborators are going to want to meet with you. And you need to say no without insulting them to default to your company's remote-first async culture.

So be ready with an explanation to accompany your no.

“Have a template to refuse meetings with external people, so you can easily say no. For example:

‘We're super busy at @remote, so I prefer to do this async. Happy to setup a meeting if we feel the need after exchanging a few messages, but I think we should be able to cover off what we need to.’”

Phase out existing meetings

If you already have too many meetings, don't despair!

Be proactive, take ownership, and find a way to gradually reduce the volume of meetings for everyone in your team. You can be the catalyst for effective remote-first policy change.

“Make it a goal to remove existing meetings. Everyone will love that. Next meeting you have, add a point to the agenda:

• How can we get rid of this meeting?

Do that until the meeting is gone.”

Try no-meeting experiments

Get curious and figure out new ways to go meeting-free.

“Replace meetings with experiments:

• try to do async video

• try async audio

• try emailing each other

• try doing a Slack standup

You can always go back to having a meeting, but you won't know whether the alternative works until you've tried it.”

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And who knows? You might start a remote communication revolution.

Limit your availability

Fill your schedule with things you need to be doing so that meetings can’t creep in. Starve your meetings and they’ll waste away.

“Block time off to do deep work/other things and never allow meetings to happen there. Google calendar's OOO function works well for this, as it auto-rejects any events during this time.”

Keep work talk and fun talk separate

Of course, one big benefit to having meetings is getting to talk to each other, to hang out and chat, even if it’s virtually on Zoom or another platform. But then things get muddy. 

Work infiltrates fun and fun infiltrates work. Successful workplaces have both. So schedule both. Work meetings for work talk and chats for, you know, chatting.

“Another one, from Remote's Director of Product, Jeremy Watson: avoid agenda-less 'coffee chats' that are actually work conversations. 

Instead, make dedicated time to have a structured conversation (with an agenda), or set time aside for an unstructured coffee chat to relax and socialize.”

Make the most out of your remote meetings

You now see both sides of remote meetings — how they can either drive or sap productivity. 

With these best practices for running meetings and our CEO’s tips to avoid unnecessary ones, you’re well on your way to better work.

At Remote, we’re a global HR platform. We help companies hire, manage, and pay their entire team. 

Explore our blog to gain more insights into modern work. Or you can book a call with one of our thoughtful staff members to learn more about how we can help power your team.

Get started with Remote today!