5 Best Practices for Using the Whiteboard in Online Meetings
Have you checked out online whiteboard tools, like in Zoom, for your remote team meetings? How has it gone?
Today, Eric Oakland, TruScribe’s Chief Innovation Officer, walks through 5 best practices for using online whiteboards to make your team meetings more collaborative.
Last video I talked about the benefits of using whiteboards in your virtual meeting using Zoom. In this video I want to share five best practices of virtual white boarding on Zoom or other online collaboration tools.
I’m Eric Oakland head of innovation at TruScribe and Squigl. TruScribe creates custom hand-drawn whiteboard videos for communications and marketing; while Squigl is a do-it-yourself video creation software for corporate training and education.
Best practice number one: multiple roles.
It can seem intuitive for the meeting facilitator to lead from the whiteboard. However, there can be many roles in a meeting and you should designate a recorder to capture the discussion on a whiteboard. The facilitator keeps the meeting going while the recorder captures the ideas of those in attendance.
Best practice number two: collaboration.
To foster more collaboration in your meeting, invite others to share a specific idea on the whiteboard. This may be a preferred mode for some attendees, and it doubles down on the invitation for them to participate in the discussion.
Best practice number three: set some guidelines.
Working on a whiteboard is fun but it can be intimidating in front of your peers. So set some guidelines to keep it positive and build confidence. Make it clear who’s invited to the whiteboard at a given time, supporting their time to share and inviting them back to their seat when they’re done. Discourage critique of each other’s artistry on the board. Boxes and stick figures are just fine. A Picasso is not going to help make this systems diagram more clear. In addition to thanking them for sharing an idea, thank them for sharing it on the whiteboard.
Best practice number four: use shapes instead of words.
We’ve all tried to verbally explain an idea, only to find others or ourselves getting stuck. Visuals give you another way to clarify your thoughts.
Best practice number five: Share your work.
After the meeting is over, share an image of the whiteboard as the meeting notes in addition to any other minutes. The information and experience of each attendee is held in the image of the whiteboard.
Your online meetings will be more productive and collaborative with these five best practices when you’re whiteboarding. Are there any tools that you’re using to bring more creativity and collaboration to your meetings? I’d love to know more about them so please share them in the comments below so I can check them out.
I’ll be back soon with more information, ideas about whiteboarding, and more.