Greetings from Montreal☀️where we dropped our daughter off at university and started a new chapter as empty nesters.
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest.
If you are joining for the first time, welcome to our deep dive into facilitation, learning, and how to live a creative life.
This week I’m excited to share insights on why virtual meetings feel so weird and my brand new Step-by-step Guide for Creating Instantly Engaging Sessions.
Let’s jump right in!
🤷Why Do Virtual Meetings Feel So Weird?
An article from American Scientist by University of Texas at Austin linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating.
One of the biggest challenges with online meetings is that we don’t have the body language and social cues that we have in person. This article helped me understand exactly why this is so important.
Here are my 3 biggest takeaways👇
👉Sight, not just words, plays a key role in the way we interact. Sociologist Erving Goffman called this “focused interaction“. We notice how we are being experienced by other people. This builds a framework for a lot of important parts of teamwork. In a virtual setting, we lose the ability to observe others observing us because we often don’t know where their gaze is directed.
👉Nonverbal behavior makes up 2/3rds of the social meaning of a conversation. Body language and listening in a conversation give off signals about whether people are confused or following along. And whether they are excited or getting bored. Things that make it possible to work together. In online sessions, you have to find ways to compensate for the loss of nonverbal cues like checking in with the group more often.
👉Important exchanges happen at the water cooler. Bumping into co-workers builds social bonds. It also facilitates mentoring and professional learning. In the virtual space, fostering worker interactions have to be reinvented specifically for the way we interact online.
Read the full article 👉 here.
Thanks to Rick Ingrasci for sharing this article.
📙New Guide: How to Create Instantly Engaging Virtual Sessions Your Participants Will Love ❤️
I am thrilled to share my brand new step-by-step guide on virtual facilitation with you. As most of us have learned during the pandemic, what works in person doesn’t work online. That’s why they feel so weird – and exhausting.
My aim with the guide is to help you design and lead dynamic, engaging virtual experiences that are specifically designed for the way we interact online.
You can download your free copy right 👉here.
In the 13-page guide you’ll discover:
🚫The 5 biggest mistakes virtual leaders make (and how to avoid them)
✔️4 must-follow practices that will supercharge virtual engagement
💡8 powerful steps to designing sessions that will keep people engaged from start to finish
💪35 practical ideas that you can start using in your sessions straight away
Do you have 2 mins? I’d love to hear your feedback on the guide. Please click 👉 hereto fill in a short survey or hit reply on this email.
If you enjoyed the guide I’d love it if you could share it with your networks and anyone who might like it with this link 👉here.
🙌Big thanks to Quest readers Connie W., Michaele, Barry, Kasia, Charlotte, and Lilian for their feedback on the guide. To Chris Malapitan for designing the Breakthrough Arc. And to Nadia Chaney, Partners for Youth Empowerment and Dream a Dream whose Arc of Transformation inspired the Breakthrough Arc.
📸Photo of the week
Sunrise in Montreal.
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
Visit my website for ways we can work together 👉 here.
If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to The Quest 👉here.
If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it.
Creatively yours,
