I love it when I receive an email or Slack message saying, “I look forward to the meeting” or “I will be on vacation so please record the meeting”. Productive and engaging virtual accountability meetings are possible with planning and creativity. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Start the meeting with a fun team building exercise: Choose a different topic for each meeting – what do you think about AI and how can it help you do your job better, what did you do to relieve stress last week, share a work challenge from last week and how you resolved it, what do you consider overrated.
Implement facilitator techniques that give the participants a great meeting experience: Stick to the agenda, keep things upbeat and to the point, perform active listening and unbiased objectivity, and connect with the team and be relatable.
Rotate the facilitators to bring a variety to the meeting: Ask for volunteers to facilitate the meeting and set them up for success by providing training. This will give each participate a chance to feel accountable for the meeting’s success. Although each facilitator should follow the established meeting format, he or she should be encouraged to bring his or her unique style into the facilitating process.
Focus on team building to establish trust and open and honest communication: When there is trust amongst team members, they are comfortable being open and honest (in a respectful way) and challenging each other to come up with the best ideas.
Give each participant the chance to speak: Go around the virtual meeting room to give each participant the chance to speak. To pull this off successfully and keep the discussions moving, encourage participants to prepare their thoughts in advance to keep contributions concise, and suggest that participants simply state their agreement with a point rather than repeating it. Furthermore, make it clear that it is okay not to speak if they don't have anything meaningful to add. This can reduce pressure and make the meeting more comfortable for everyone.
Talk about it: Regularly check in with the team about their meeting experience. Encourage a culture of continuous improvement by discussing what worked well and what could be improved after each meeting. Other useful tips to share include get good sleep, drink sufficient water, exercise and feel free to stand during the meeting to stay alert.

Feel free to contact me at gail@gailworonick.com for a free consultation.