Digital meetings in six steps

Are you often just too busy? Is it hard to keep up that balancing act? Well, you’re not the only one! At least not according to TNO’s health & safety survey Arbobalans 2016 published in December 2016. According to the survey, a lot of working people are overburdened by a combination of pressure of work and not enough autonomy. In healthcare and education, 25% of personnel are regularly balancing on the brink of burnout. Now that the economy is improving, it’s pretty obvious that pressure of work is increasing further in many organisations. So it’s time to work as effectively as possible. Too complicated? Not if you use the right tools! For example, have you ever considered digital meetings? They are faster to implement than you might think and will save you a lot of time.


Six steps

In the Netherlands, we spend an average of 25% of our working hours in meetings. So every minute that you save in a meeting means a huge saving on a yearly basis! Digital meetings save time. You can read more about that in an earlier blog. But is the implementation process scaring you off? Do you think that introducing each ICT process is a complicated business? Then be sure to read on, because introducing digital meetings is easy if you follow these six steps.


Step 1 – Create support and provide insight into the benefits

If you simply present people with a decision, they’ll dig in their heels. And that’s hardly surprising, is it? So, if you want to introduce digital meetings, give people a say in it. They will feel involved and you’ll create support. What’s more, it’s important that you explain all the benefits clearly. In this e-book you’ll find all the benefits of digital meetings clearly listed. 


Step 2 – Check the technical preconditions

If you want your digital meetings to be a success, make sure that the technical preconditions are perfectly in order. So invite your ICT colleagues to sit down with you and discuss the following questions:

- On which devices should the meeting tool work?
- How will you store the data?
- Do you have a stable Internet connection?
- How do you safeguard offline functionality?


Step 3 – Choose the meeting tool that suits you

You only have to Google meeting tools to immediately get lost in the huge amount on offer. There are so many different sorts and sizes. So what do you have to watch out for? Well, you should choose a tool that meets your practical needs, but also suits your budget. Examples of issues that you should think about are availability, ease of use, support, and integration with other tools.


Step 4 – Deploy early adopters

You almost certainly know a couple of colleagues that you could call ‘early adopters’. They are the people who are always the first to have new gadgets, apps and tools. Know who they are? Good. Get these people on your side! Invite them to test the meeting tool. Let them share their experiences and enthuse others to hold meetings digitally.


Step 5 – Good planning streamlines introduction

If you want introducing digital meetings to run smoothly, it’s a good idea to have a firm implementation programme. Include the following phases:

1. First, let one or two groups have paperless meetings
2. Set up a train-the-trainer programme and then train all the usual meeting participants
3. Let everyone start at the same time


Step 6 – Ready to start

Once you have run through all five steps, you’re ready to handle all your meetings in the most efficient way possible. That saves you time and will hopefully ensure that at the end of 2017 you can look back on this year with a good feeling and without too much stress.

If you would like to take the first step towards paperless meetings, download this infographic, which will give you a clear visual illustration of the step-by-step plan.

iBabs Meeting Assessment
iBabs is a leader in paperless meetings and enables you to reduce these piles of documents to the thickness of your tablet. Thousands of organizations have been using this system for more than 15 years.

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