The ultimate guide to remote meetings and synchronous meetings |

Before the transition towards remote working I worked in an online team in the bank's digital branch. They were constantly experimenting with various types of remote meeting that were mixed, which generally ran well.

But, it's never an simple to increase the efficiency of your meetings or to ensure that you have a good meeting communications via remote, or even decide what type of remote meeting to have in the first place.

This guide (based on research as well as personal knowledge) will help you understand the different types of remote meetings, how to effectively conduct them along with some helpful tips and tricks selecting the best devices for the job plus common virtual meeting etiquette.

Types of remote meetings

Perhaps you haven't given this a lot of thought it, but there's various types of remote meetings (and chances are you're already somewhat acquainted with these). As technology advances in this area We've now been able communicate with remote workers and other team members through one of the primary methods or a combination of them!

Teleconferencing

In all of the kinds of remote meeting we'll speak about in this article, teleconferencing probably the most tried-and-tested old-school technique. Because it is a type of phone that only uses audio, the technology for it is much older and simpler than the others in this list.

It is basically that the hosts will be "on the line' during a specific meeting time, after which others in the group will be able to 'dial into' by dialing a telephone number. Naturally, this kind of meeting is best suited for small groups of people -- not having the ability to view each other might get confusing in the event that multiple individuals are speaking simultaneously.

Video conferencing

Since the onset of a certain pandemic in 2020, video conferencing has become a common staple in many of our work lives thanks to apps like Zoom meetings as well as Microsoft Teams.

Video conferences (conferences) follow a similar structure to teleconferencing. It's that the host hosts an event in real-time where the participants  connect by dialing a link or phone number. What makes them different in this case is the ability to be able to see one another and utilize software that makes the video calls more efficient and enjoyable.

Web conferencing

Lastly, the third most popular type of virtual meeting is web-based conferencing. It's easy to confuse this type of meeting with video conferencing, however there is a difference -web conferences are usually used for virtual events (like all-hands meeting) or online training or for project collaboration, where there is the benefit of a practical aspect to it.

Naturally, this option can be a great option for large-scale projects or business-wide meetings and may be set up in a similar way to a video conference but it may also require pre-registration and ticketed attendance.

For a further layer of the various types of meetings, there is also the possibility of scheduling'sync meeting', or async.

What is an asynchronous meeting?

Asynch-based meetings are one type of communication that doesn't happen in real-time and also doesn't normally require an immediate response.

Synchronous communication vs asynchronous communication

In the digital banking job I mentioned earlier, they always worked really at making sure that remote employees felt welcome and included in decision making and update of status, check-ins and team-building events. In order to achieve this, they required Asynchronous and Synchronous gatherings, however every one of them comes with its pros and cons.

 The benefits of synchronous meetings:

• The most closely matches in-person gatherings.
• immediate feedback regarding action things or discussion points.
• Communication in real-time can allow you to share ideas more easily.

 What's not so great:

• Most of the time it is possible to meet people who tend to be quiet or shy, who find it difficult to participate.
• On the other hand in the event that everybody has something to share, the discussion will quickly be a chaotic swarm of people talking over each other.
• The risk is that you will experience technological delay or network issues when you need it the most.

 Asynchronous Meetings: Benefits:

• When there's no pressure to communicate immediately, nearly everybody has the chance to have the voice of their choice to be heard.
• Being able to schedule suitable times for meetings that were distributed globally or with night shift team members (something my old workplace benefitted hugely from).

 What's not great about HTML0:

• According to Buffer's Report on the State of Remote Work report, 20% of respondents said loneliness was their biggest struggle (which I also can attest to), sync meetings are your chance to 'see' the other members of your group, therefore moving into asynchronous communications can add to loneliness.
• If a quick reaction isn't required, staff members may forget to respond or follow up altogether.
• A common issue with remote working according the Statista that also applies to meetings that are async (since they may be going in and out throughout the workday) is the inability unplug.

On balance, from considering the pros and cons it's a matter of choosing the right way to conduct the event, instead of choosing one of the extremes. In this case, I'll focus a little more on the async meetings starting from now (since they're not so well recognized).

How to run a productive Asynchronous Meeting

You're aware of the sorts of remote meetings there are, as well as the various options for how to run them, but how do you actually run an asynchronous meeting? It can be a bit of a head-scratcher when you're experienced with having meetings in real time.

Because I don't have personal experience managing meetings (only taking part in them), I asked a few experts, including an ex-Project Manager who became a freelance writer Laura Bosco, about what they believed made effective and product asynchronous meetings, here's what she said:

 "--the the context and structure of the async communication have been major factors for me and are still a major factor for me when working with clients.

Context: Some kinds of feedback, announcements, or inquiries are more sensitivity or easily misinterpreted. Video can be more effective than text as the other person can hear the tone of your voice as well as see your face. This reduces the chance of miscommunication and relationship injury.

Format: Big fan of BLUF (bottom-line-up-front) in most written comms. For one, it's more effective. If your request is concise and succinctly stated, you're much more likely to get the response you need. For another, it's an opportunity to show empathy to the individual. This shows gratitude for their time as well as the daily influx of messages.

 Additionally, formatting text. Bold, headers, bullets or italics to indicate important requests...these aren't meant to degrade the reader. They assist them to digest your communication ."

Laura isn't alone who believes that providing context is the best way to make use of async communications. Michael Steele, CEO of Flywheel Digital (a remote first technical marketing agency) and an avid user of Notion, Google Docs, and Slack to build their tech stack. He also said:

 "A big key to success when it comes to synchronous communications, which includes staff and customers, is providing context. All parties involved should be aware of the objectives and the most recent developments or events of note, and have easy access to foundational documents such as strategies as well as marketing personas and performance reports.

 With no context for synchronous communication, miscommunications are common and time is wasted fixing mistakes and making revisions that could have been easily avoided with the right details available from the beginning."

In terms of the operational aspect of conducting meetings founder of ScrapingBee (a 100 percent remote business) Kevin Sahin says that besides having short real-time meetings with memos prepared in Notion and Slack, they also utilize Slack:

"Slack is asynchronous and we use Slack status to determine if a colleague can be reached for a phone call or not. If we post a message in Slack it's not expected to receive an answer immediately, that's what the purpose of it. In general, our philosophy is to choose the most effective software for the task."

For an effective asynchronous meeting, you need to make sure you're using tools properly, giving context, as well as the issues you're addressing are done so it's easy and easy to handle.

9 ways for planning and executing the perfect remote conference

Whether your remote meeting is synchronous or asynchronous however, there are a some general guidelines to make them more efficient. These tips are derived from current research however others stem from experience. I'll present them in a before the meeting, after, and during arrangement for people who favor real-time. However, the context of the tips still applies for async meetings.

 Prior to the gathering:

1. Ensure only essential people are allowed to attend. If you overcrowd a virtual meeting regardless of whether it's a video conference or a Slack channel or a video conference, details can be lost quickly and less people will be able to fully participate.
   
2. Set a crystal clear agenda. You can set agendas either for real-time or async-based meetings using any software you prefer When I worked in a banking sector, we created Notion templates that had fill-in sections that reflected the problems we were facing as well as the action points.
   
3. Establish meeting norms. Laura also mentioned one interesting method she prefers to use that is to write and share "how to work alongside me" document ( like this one) in order to set standards and expectations for meetings, as well as for other communications.

 At the time of the meeting:

1. End and start on time. This point is particularly true of real-time remote meetings. There's nothing much worse than turning up for a meeting later or overrunning. People's time is precious. The same is true of meeting async -- if you fail to respond promptly in a reasonable manner, the information might either get lost or other deadlines could be missed.
   
2. Make it brief. Similar to the above point, there's not much use in an hour-long meeting in real-time in the event that you could achieve the goals you want using async communication or smaller meetings. When it comes to the async method, try to avoid writing massive pages of text, or making long pauses in recorded videos.
   
3. Be sure that everyone gets heard and acknowledged. As I mentioned in the past, not all people have the qualities to speak up during real-time chats, but async communication provides those with the ability to speak up. But, if you're the manager or as a host is still essential to be vigilant about member participation.

 At the end of the meeting:

1. Gather feedback from participants. If you're experimenting using different kinds of meetings, it's essential to get feedback from the participants so you can find out what is and isn't working regarding the communication style and channel. Different software may work better than others for different people.
   
2. Offer a channel of follow-up communication. Generally speaking, it's best to create a channel of communication or virtual space where participants can provide an ad-hoc note about the meeting or updates regarding action items without cluttering with meetings.
   

So you might be wondering in this moment, "those tips are all well and good however, what is the software?", this next section will help you.

Software to facilitate remote meetings

Of course, one important aspect to consider when having remote meetings of any type is to ensure that you're using the correct technology in the first place. Naturally, for synchronous meetings the most well-known videoconferencing solutions like Zoom, Microsoft Teams/Skype, and Google Meet do the trick fairly well, but it's a bit different for synchronous meetings.

Some of the most common asynchronous meeting software (which can also be mostly project management tools) Some, which are already mentioned are:

•   Slack
•   Trello
•   Google Docs
•   Asana
•   Notion
•   Basecamp
• If you're part of a group of developers, Gitlab or Github is a good option.

The right software for your virtual meeting

The majority of collaboration tools I've listed above are written in text or used to communicate, while other collaboration tools may be made up of image, text or video. As Laura mentioned previously, context and design is crucial.

 For simple project updates

If you're trying to get people up to speed on what your project state is, software like Trello, Asana, and Notion are great for this. As an example I (and my previous work colleagues) make use of Notion "boards" to give overviews of current statuses for projects as well as a way to dive in to see comments:

You can do a similar 'board' style organization in all the apps previously mentioned.

 For continuous updates

If your team or project needs to be easy to get in touch with but doesn't require regular meetings that are held in-person Most of the tools listed are good, Basecamp in particular is great, but Slack tops the list on this issue.

At my old workplace, every team was given its own Slack channel to have basically asynchronous stand-ups, while there were also corporate channels that provided more general information. Of course, I don't have access to this particular Slack workspace, however I do have some Slack workspaces that I utilize in a similar way:

 For more intricate or sensitive data

Like Laura said, certain kinds of data require personal touch. There is no need to keep details that are misinterpreted or lost among all the posts and projects. In order to avoid that, you'll need to use video, and has your back.

As a bonus it is possible to track who has viewed the video, and also participate with them in the comments.

It's sometimes difficult to decide the best software or technique to use since every team has its own unique approach, so it's worthwhile to test the waters early and not being afraid to move on if one isn't working out for you.

The playbook for remote meetings: Etiquette to conduct virtual meetings

The final topic go over in this book is the etiquette of meetings. Some of the concepts may be familiar to those who have been through what we've already covered However, it's worthwhile to outline precisely what typical manners of meeting at a remote location look like.

For synchronous meetings, we've been on a lot of Zoom calls and have learned these general guidelines (and still accidentally break them):

• Be sure to not be on mute when you're speaking.
• Be in a quiet place so other participants can concentrate on the conversation (not the washing machine that is running in the background).
• Check out the features you would like to implement before deciding so that you don't waste time trying to figure it out during the meeting.

But, things are slightly different when it comes to asynchronous meetings, and the rules of engagement can be different based on the mode of communication or channel of communication.

For channels that use text (e.g. Notion, Slack etc.)

• Keep on-topic information in the proper channel/thread/page (or when you're making reference to an item of interest, include the link to that thread or page).
• Do not treat it as mail. This means that you should acknowledge the message or job instead of putting it to the inbox (in Slack, it is possible to sign a message by using an emoticon! ).
• Take note that other people also have personal lives. In asynchronous messaging It's easy to overlook there are people doing the same thing as you. Check if someone is available prior to making a push message to them.

 Asynchronous video calls

• Be sure that the camera and microphones are of high enough quality for people to comprehend what you're speaking about.
• Have a clear takeaway you want to impart to others -- no one wants to sit through a video and not learn any new information.

Naturally, these are only general etiquette guidelines. You may be in a position to have your own rules for communicating to each other, and which technology to use. This is why you can bear these to mind when learning how to use them or creating the rules.

Start off with a great beginning with online meeting

Similar to many relationships Effective communication is key to successful day-to-day business However, it doesn't necessarily need to be the moment.

Remote meetings that are synchronous can assist you in having more productive conversations, involve all of your team members as well as create a culture that is open and transparent (since the asynchronous comms are automatically documented). If you're contemplating adopting a more asynchronous approach you should consider trying different tools to find out what works for you.