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Meeting Via Video: Tips for Connecting with Your Team
By Aubrey Yerger, PE
Many of us and our fellow team members are currently working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all been told we need to connect with our team to make sure everyone is on board—now, just how do we do that?
We set up video calls, everyone calls in, but then … what do we say? Everyone sips on their coffee for a few minutes, you exchange a few pleasantries until your team leader calls the meeting a wrap. Your fellow employee-owners seem just as far away as they did before your “connection” time.
How DO you make that personal connection that we all crave so much in our current situation when you’re talking to your team through a screen?
As a Helena-based employee-owner, many of my co-workers are 120 miles away in Missoula. At the start of the pandemic, we started making concerted efforts to connect with each other as we are all now remote employee-owners. At first it is was easy; however, as time wears on, the topics of current workload, working remotely, remote-learning school, and the pandemic have been covered exhaustively.
On a personal level, we also are feeling the need to connect with people more and more as each day comes and goes.
About a month ago, our team implemented a “COVID-share” meeting. We take a half-hour every week to each share one item from the following proposed topics:
- Something to look forward to.
- Something you and/or your family are doing to pass the time.
- A good movie you watched.
- A good book or book series you’ve read or are reading.
- A delicious recipe or meal you’ve made.
- An activity associated with the upcoming holidays.
- An upcoming virtual or socially distanced event(s) in your community.
After the first couple of COVID-share meetings, connecting with your team members will become more natural and leave you feeling connected. It may also spark a great idea for you and your family!