I see a lot of articles about, and get a lot of requests for, ideas, tools, techniques to make virtual sessions more engaging.  

 

Much of the time I come from a bit of a Ghandi position (“Be the change you wish to see in the world”)  by asking, "when you are a virtual participant, how engaged are you?”

 

And by the way, I don’t believe it’s an engagement issue.  I think it’s a Mindfulness or Being Present issue.  It’s just too easy to be distracted by other things going on in your world.  So... which one of these are you when it comes to virtual sessions.  Are you a:

 

• Passive Player who sits with his head phones on, giving perhaps 50% of his attention to the meeting, but not contributing anything.  

 

• Distracted Delayer who is so busy doing his email, or other work that he holds up the discussion when called upon to contribute, “Sorry! My phone was on mute…can you repeat the question?”

 

• Turn up box ticker who only shows up so that you are “seen” to be in the meeting but don't give or get any value.

 

It’s just too easy to be a non participator and then blame the meeting for being “disengaging”.

 

How about the next time you are on a virtual session, you seek to be a Conscious Contributor who actively listens, makes comments and participates fully in the session.  Decide to give and get value for the time you spend in the session.