admin, Author at Digital Collaboration Tool

Digital facilitators need to know what kinds of technologies are available for them and how to use them in the best possible way. Finding the right kind of digital facilitation system helps professionals to facilitate all virtual workshops and meetings.

At the same time the most effective tools for virtual facilitation ensure that all the technologies needed are perfectly aligned and working together. As you might have already noticed, there are now a wide selection of different kinds of options, which means finding the perfect one might get tricky.

Worry not – DCT team is ready to help you. Our team has tested various digital facilitation systems and gathered a list that helps you quickly determine the solutions that would be the best ones for you and your next projects.

Our list included all types of tools that are suitable for facilitating virtual events and workshops. Here you’ll find the best tools for video conferences, communication, white boarding, presentations and so on. Without further ado, let’s get started!

1. Howspace

Howspace is one of the most effective tools for digital facilitation. It is suitable for various kinds of projects and when it comes to facilitating and video conferencing, Howspace is a must.

Virtual facilitating with Howspace is now better than ever, thanks to the Live feature that’s integrated to the platform. This feature lets you facilitate with your own face! There are really not that many digital collaboration tools with this cool feature, so Howspace is now setting the bar for others pretty high.

There is no limitation to the number of video chats per page! This means that you can easily have break out sessions, informal chats and brainstorming sessions with up to 100 participants in the same call!

Howspace Live is integrated in the workspace
Up to 100 participants in one call
Up to 10 breakout rooms in one live session
Ideal for virtual facilitating
Only 12 video participants in one call

Get Howspace

2. Teams

Teams is part of Microsoft Office 365 package. It’s ideal for collaboration and video conferencing, but it does lack some of the cool features that Howspace offers. For hardcore Microsoft users, Teams is however a great tool that is suitable for facilitators, too. Compared to our number one, Teams is not as versatile, but still a good tool. One thing that bothers us with Teams is the fact that channels cannot be moved between different teams.

Integrates perfectly with email
Allows you to share emails and calendars
Enables video conferencing
File storage, application integration
The structure might seem confusing at first
Building blocks are not that easy to use

3. Zoom

Zoom is probably the most popular cloud-based video and audio communication platform. Compared to Howspace, it lacks many features that you as a facilitator might need. This means that there can eventually be a lot of downloading to do. If that’s not a problem, go ahead and choose Zoom. We love it especially when working with huge groups, but it is a suitable tool for smaller ones for sure, too.

Up to 1000 participants
Integrates with Gmail and Outlook
Upload own images and use as backgrounds
Possible to record any session
Enables screen sharing, chats, file sharing
not as versatile as Howspace or Teams
Zoom has had some security issues

4. Slack

Slack is a well-known messaging platform with some interesting features. It is popular since with Slack it’s easy to gather all communication nicely into one simple place. Slack is pretty straight-forward, so it is easy to start using even with no previous experience of these types of tools. We have used Slack mainly for short messaging with our customers, but also for communicating with our small teams when working from all over the world.

What we’ve notice with Slack is that even though it is a pretty straightforward platform, it might get messy easily. The channels and discussions can easily get overwhelming, especially if a bigger group of people is using Slack for multiple on-going projects at the same time

The interface is really simple
Ideal for small group chats
Easier than having chats in email
Insane amount of integrations
Free plan only for 10 integrations
Paid plan is super expensive

5. Viima

Viima is a bit different innovation platform. It is all about idea sharing: with Viima workspace you are able to collect and gather ideas from customers and team members. Viima is very easy to start using, even without prior experience of similar tools. It makes developing and refining ideas smooth. We have used Viima with school projects and customer projects, whenever we need to get idea sharing running as fast and smooth as possible.

Easy to use
A fresh approach in idea sharing
Suitable for many projects
Great pricing
Not as versatile as other similar platforms

Get Viima

6. Monday

Monday is an open platform for project management, collaboration and all types of other functions that you as a facilitator might need. It’s easily customizable for different needs and it truly is a tool that helps teams and organizations in their operational efficiency. You can visualize data, make projects run smoother and use multiple integrations.

The interface is very user-friendly
You can even create videos
Great color coding system
Easy to prioritize tasks
Basic plan is very very basic

Get Monday

7. Clickup

When it comes to project management, tools such as Howspace, Monday and Wrike are our favourites. We have yet two or three more to add to this list, of which Clickup is the second one. This platform is great for many kinds of industries and companies. There are many exciting and effective features that make collaboration, project management and overall communication fast.

Is there that much of difference in Clickup and with Monday or Wrike, if we think of these tools from the facilitation point of view? Not really, you will do just fine with any of of them.

Can be used as a notepad, too
Super easy to use
Cool features to get the platform personalized
Free plan is quite extensive
Can seem cofusing

Get Clickup

8. Wrike

In addition to Monday, Clickup and Howspace, there’s a great project manager tool that we can recommend: Wrike. It has multiple features that make project management and facilitation easy and efficient. Wrike keeps adding new cool features to its platform on a pretty regular basis which makes it interesting to use. There’s always something new and exciting to discover, also for virtual facilitation.

Very versatile
Easy integration and automation
Easily customized tools
Not as powerful for facilitating than Howspace

Get Wrike

9. Canva

Canva is an excellent tool for all people working around content creation. It can be a valuable tool also for facilitators. With Canva you are able to take your presentations and materials to a whole nother level – even with the free version.

Canva is suitable for all types of teams: files and work spaces can be shared with a simple link. The drag and drop feature can be used for designing various kinds of layouts. You can even design and print business cards, presentations and logos. Plus a lot more!

Create a personal look to all your materials
Files can be shared easily
Free version is packed with cool features
Image bank is accessed only with paid version
Svg is available only in the paid version

10. Prezi

With Prezi you are able to create interactive visuals that appear next to you on screen! Compared to other similar tools, Prezi introduces you to a ZUI feature that allows users to zoom in and out while presenting something. Prezi has a lot more cool features than PowerPoint, which probably explains its huge popularity.

At the moment it seems that many Youtubers, Instagram influencers and TikTok users are creating a lot of their content using Prezi. And why wouldn’t they, it’s a simple tool that makes magic happen to your material!

Plenty of functions and dimensions
The entire presentation can be moved
You can add music, too
Extremely versatile
Free version of Prezi works only online
There’s no templates ready

11. Padlet

Padlet was probably one of the first whiteboard platforms that we ran into. As a platform it offers more possibilities than Google Jamboard but at the same time it is simple and easy to use. Padlet is suitable for all kinds of real-time collaborations. The platform is flexible and more beautiful to look at than most whiteboards we’ve seen.

Posts can be added with just one click
Copy-pasting and drag and drop with one click
Super easy to use
All changes are automatically saved
Simple link sharing makes collaborations quick
Not too versatile

12. Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is another whiteboard platform that complements the Google Workspace. This tool is super easy to use and it enables multiple people working at the same time.

What’s particularly cool about this one is the fact that it’s completely free. On the other hand this means that there aren’t too many special features. For that reason, we recommend Google Jamboard only as a quick tool in group discussions etc.

Super easy to start using
A great part of Google Workspace
Completely free
Not that many features

13. Moqup

Moqup is another tool that lets you create and collaborate. It comes with special mockups, diagrams, prototypes and wireframes. Real-time work is running smoothly, since Moqup is smart and simple. It adapts to all kinds of needs and workflows. There’s a no time limit in Mocup’s free plan, which is great. On the other hand the paid version is a lot more powerful and suitable for professional use.

Flexible ecosystem of tools
Easy to start using
Simple but effective
For facilitating you might need othero

Get Moqup

14. Asana

Asana is a project management tool that we have gotten to know just recently. In our experience this tool will definitely make facilitation easier and faster. Asana brings teams together in one, simple shared space. Collaborations are easy from everywhere, so this is a great tool for remote work as well. What we love about it the most is the easy-to-use boards and task management. With Asana digital collaboration runs smoothly from start to finish. And it’s not too expensive to start using for even smaller companies.

Great list view
Easy to organize and assign tasks
Excellent Timeline structure
Spot bottlenecks with Boards
Not as powerful for facilitating than Howspace

15. Miro

Miro is an excellent online collaborative tool that we too have had the pleasure to work with over the past couple of years. It’s a whiteboard platform suitable for modern work. The tool enables all types of teams to collaborate and communicate across different types of tools, formats, time zones and channels. With Miro you can truly forget about all the restrictions of meeting spaces and physical locations, which means it’s ideal for not only virtual facilitation but for all types of remote projects, too.

Plenty of functions and dimensions
The entire presentation can be moved
You can add music, too
Extremely versatile
Free version of Prezi works only online
There’s no templates ready

Our recommendations

When it comes to the perfect digital facilitation system, the absolutely best tool would be Howspace. There’s no other tool at the moment in the markets that could combine all the most necessary features that you need when facilitating. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with combining other tools that we mentioned in this list!

Use Best Tools For Learning Online

With the rapid growth of technology, the mode of teaching and learning has changed. Because of this, a lot of top online learning platforms can help supplement teachers’ ability to bring new information to students while offering students several options for learning (input and output) have been created.

Generally, when studying online, you will encounter tools such as Howspace, Kahoot, Teams, and Zoom. All of these are called online learning tools and they are what facilitate online learning.

You can see online learning tools as any app, technology, or program that can be used via an internet connection and help to enhance an instructor’s ability to present information and the learner’s (student’s) ability to access the information via the internet.

The online teaching and learning can be made more effective using these tools mentioned above. We’ll delve more into them later now!F

Howspace is an AI-powered digital tool that aids social-learning
Kahoot is a game-based learning tool
Teams is a collaborative-virtual working environment
Zoom is a cloud-based video communication tool
All schools and universities can use different tools, so there’s really no single pattern to facilitate digital learning

Kahoot

Learning is not just about memorizing and taking tests. At times it involves play. Learning can be fun with a little mix of play.

Kahoot is a game-based online platform used by institutions and schools to help their learners and students to consolidate what they were taught. Kahoot was created in 2012 by Johan Brand, Morten Versvik, and Jamie Brooker in a joint project with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Kahoot was created for social learning, with students gathered with a common virtual screen such as computer monitor, projector, or interactive whiteboard. The platform can also be accessed using screen sharing tools such as Google Hangout or Skype.

The game is pretty simple – all players connect to the game using a generated PIN shown on the common screen and use their device to give answers to questions created by the instructor.

Howspace

Howspace is an online facilitation platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that helps users to collaborate in learning and organisational programs. This digital collaboration tool was particularly created for facilitator-led events and workshops. It helps schools, organisations, and institutions to build an interactive journey for change initiative and organisational transformation and development using an intuitive drag and drop interface.

Howspace helps schools, institutions, and organisations to involve their students and learners and deliver information through active conversation before class, during class, and after class.

One can analyze large discussions in a matter of seconds using artificial intelligence. You can also create summaries or clutter themes with just one click of the button.

Howspace has built-in video meetings that allow students and teachers to connect, deliver and receive information. Howspace works in asynchronous live settings and virtual. The platform also offers a free trial.

Teams/Zoom

Zoom is a cloud-based video communication platform that allows individuals, schools, institutions, and organisations to set up Webinars, virtual videos and voice conferencing, screen sharing, live chat, and collaborative capabilities.

The Zoom platform is compatible with Android, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Windows. This means that almost anyone with an internet-enabled device will be able to use it. Plus, one does not need a Zoom account to attend a Zoom meeting.

Teams also is a collaborative workspace in Microsoft365 that functions as the central hub for school, workplace, organisation, institution video chat and document sharing, collaborative teamwork, and conversion. It is designed to aid students, teachers, and workers with productivity and growth in a unified suite of tools.

Microsoft Teams was launched in 2017. Both zoom and Microsoft Teams play a vital role in the facilitation of online learning, since they provide the right virtual environment for both teachers and students to share and receive information. They also allow students to collaborate and work as a team in specific projects.

One of the things that make these virtual platforms exceptional is their easy to use interface and the fact that almost anyone can use them.

Online Learning – Positive Aspects

Though some people still see traditional universities as the best effective way to learn and get certified, online learning has by far proven to be the best alternative for traditional schooling, looking at the fact that students are at liberty to study when and where they want.

Online learning is a great way to explore more fields of study and to also increase the levels of students’ self-confidence. Online learning is effective because it allows students to quickly finish up their assignments, thereby enabling them to also get a job or do what they love doing.

The access to learning materials on the go also gives the student the opportunity to study anywhere without restrictions, as long as there is an internet connection. The students set their learning hours, apart from some occasions where they’re required to log in at a particular time.

Online Learning – Negative Sides

Humans tend to develop more when they find themselves in a group. In school, students learn how to compete, make friends, overcome disappointments, learn how to relate to people and learn to be patient.

Competitions between students can stimulate positive growth. But all of these things mentioned above are not possible with online learning, since it does not offer deep human interaction like the traditional schools where students spend time together.

A notable negative side of online learning is that online learning cannot handle a large number of students trying to connect to a discussion. There’s a limit to how many persons it can carry at a time. This varies according to each digital tool for online learning.

Online learning is also not suitable for every field of study. Most courses that require practicals are not suitable for online learning. For example, how to fly a plane obviously cannot be effectively taught online.

Editor’s Comments: Online Learning Experiences

I as a digital marketer with a passion for learning new things have been studying online for a number of times. For me it all started back in 2017 when I was doing my BBA in Xamk, Finland. I originally started my studies in the campus but then moved to Malta and needed to study the rest of my BBA remotely from there.

During that time online studying remotely wasn’t that common and sometimes I was struggling to get the lecturers to understand that they should already be more open for students studying more freely than before. Things changed when Covid-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly all schools and universities needed to shift to online learning, at least on most parts. This to me seemed on most parts a blessing!

As said, I have a passion for studying. Over the past couple of years I’ve studied online a further qualification in Business (competence area in Sales Work and Marketing). During our studies we had no contact lessons but instead the entire education was to be completed online. It was the first time I attended lectures online, since the remote BBA studies from Malta were only about report writing, not about any lectures.

to me, online learning in this new way was not that great of an experience. I’ve always loved to attend lectures but when they are online, I easily get distracted and simply put, bored. I don’t love break out rooms, I do not enjoy the group discussions and find it difficult to follow the lectures in general. This happens especially when the online tools for learning are not the best ones.

The unhappiness about remote lectures applies to my current studies, too. Now I am studying an MBA in digital business management in Lapland UAS, Finland. I am once again doing online studies, and facing the same issues as earlier. On the other hand, I must say I enjoy the fact that I can live where ever I want and still get an international education at an MBA level from the comfort of my own home.

For me online learning gives freedom and flexibility, so even if there’s those break out rooms and remote lectures I don’t value that much, in the end I prefer to study online rather than going to campus. What are your experiences? Comment below!

Suvi, Chief Editor

Meetings are an eccentric part of relationships, whether it is business or casual. For many years, face to face has been a good way to set up a meeting and without a doubt, physical meetings continue to offer intrinsic benefits. However, with the advancement in technology, virtual meetings are becoming quite popular, especially in the business world. As it stands, meetings can happen without both parties having to be in the same country or region anytime.

In this article we’ll go through the basic tools that are simple and affordable!

The current pandemic has improved the popularity of virtual meetings. Thanks to people having to social-distance in a bid to flatten the curve, scheduling virtual meetings has become the new norm. As a result, there are a lot of top tools that are available if you want to set up a virtual meeting. Continue to read this guide to find out more about some of the best tools for virtual meetings you can use.

Zoom

Zoom is one of the various tools available for anyone that wants to set up a virtual meeting. This is an online video conference service that lets users pull in up to as high as 50 HD video streams at a go. If you are planning to talk directly to other parties in the meeting, Zoom is a good choice, especially if you have a lot of people joining the meeting at once.

One of the good things about Zoom is that it is not limited to video meetings alone. You can share your screen, have an audio meeting or organize group messaging as well. As it stands, many business use Zoom as their preferred virtual meeting tool.

Zoom is available for free but the free version is limited to some extent. So, for more features, it is recommended that you explore the pricing plans or choose another option. We have Zoom also on our list of TOP 15 tools for virtual facilitation, go check that one, too!

Google Meet

For those that are Google-inclined, there is a tool from Google that you can use to organize virtual meetings. It’s called Google Meet and similar to Zoom, it is a video conferencing service. However, with Google Meet, anyone with a Google account can organize a virtual meeting for up to 100 participants at once. In addition to that, the service allows up to 60 minutes for each meeting and the video quality is high definition and enterprise-grade.

As from personal use, schools, NGOs, businesses and other organizations can use Google Meet to create virtual meetings.

To make it better, there is an advanced feature that enterprises can take advantage of, which includes creating a meeting for up to 250 participants. In addition to that, the advanced feature allows live streaming to 100,000 viewers inside a domain. It is entirely free for personal use but for enterprises, there are fees included for the advanced features.

Skype

Another top tool for virtual meetings is Skype and similar to Google Meet and Zoom, it is a video conference service. However, this service is more suitable for a one on one virtual meeting. Impressively, aside from video conferencing, users are able to send direct messages to other Skype users in their contact list. Besides that, there is an option to set up caller ID, call forwarding and voice mail, as well as Skype to Go to call anyone abroad.

With Skype, there is a feature to record calls, which is perfect for keeping records of important aspects of a meeting. In addition to that, there is a live subtitle feature to help improve communication between all the participants of the virtual meeting.

Users can also share their screen with other participants, which is good for presentations as well as sharing other things. Fortunately, there is a free version and also a paid version, depending on what you want.

Periscope

Even though the other services mentioned are available to users on their mobile devices, there are a few services dedicated to mobile phones. Among these applications is Periscope, which is exclusive to iOS and Android users. The service allows users to live stream events or interviews directly to Twitter.

Aside from that, with Periscope, the organizer, after a particular video conference, can give a recap to those who were not able to attend the video conference.

Facetime

Another video conferencing and online virtual meeting tool to use is Facetime. However, unlike Periscope, this service is only available to people using any of the Apple devices such as iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac Desktop.

With Facetime, users can easily set up a video conference with anyone that has access to any Apple device. Unfortunately, Facetime does not support group conferencing like Periscope, Google Meet, Zoom as well as Skype. However, the service is entirely free.

Other Apps to Consider

Aside from the services and applications mentioned, there is a host of others to consider for setting up an online meeting, business or casual. Without a doubt, it is not every virtual meeting tool that has a video conferencing service like the ones that are mentioned in the previous paragraphs. Some services such as Slack, Join.me, Dropbox, Google Drive and GroupMe are perfect examples. These services, however, allow two or more people to communicate over the internet.

For those that want mobile-based applications aside from Periscope and Facetime, there are other options available as well. To name a few, they include Viber, Google Hangout, and FreeConferenceCall. These can also be used for online learning.

The good thing about these services is that they are completely free for users. However, they have limited features and in most cases, they do not allow video conferencing between more than 10 users at a time. But, they are perfect for setting-up one on one virtual meetings.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt, there are many top tools to use to organize a virtual meeting. To choose any of the available options, having a clear objective is essential before proceeding to make a choice. But, note that it is also essential to choose a service that can be easily accessed by the participants.

Once all that is considered, go on to organize virtual meetings without any stress using any of the top tools mentioned in this article. And if your team needs more powerful tools for project management and facilitation, check out Viima or Howspace!

Other Great Tools For Virtual Working

A great facilitator endorses group work through a defined mechanism and makes the required choices in the time available to reach common objectives. A successful facilitator helps participants to realize that the collective is in charge, that their business is being carried out, and in a manner that encourages each person to play a role.

He or she discusses ways to help those around them to step forward and use resources, but makes no choices for the group; rather facilitates decision making.

An Objective Perspective

The strongest discussions are those where people feel relaxed, feeling that they are accepted and supported by their views. A neutral zone is established by an impartial representative where alternative points of view can be discussed and addressed in a constructive way. This is important for motivating a positive, fruitful dialogue.

If a boss wants to organize a discussion on some problem where the attendees feel awkward, or if they share an opinion different from the team leader’s, this can be a problematic situation.

There is nothing like a biased facilitator who leads a planned end to the dialogue. If the topic being addressed is delicate, complicated, or heated, the best solution to prevent the discussion from being a total waste of time could be to have an unbiased facilitator lead the debate.

Facilitation can require a lot of mental time; meaning that when facilitating, critical and creative thinking is of the essence. If you want to become a successful facilitator, neutrality and open-mindedness are essential. You can of course always improve your skills with online courses for facilitation.

Sensitivity to Individuals’ Emotions

The formation and preservation of an environment of confidence and consideration involve an understanding of how individuals react to both the issues under debate and others’ views and reactions. Many individuals do not communicate their discomfort, bruised feelings, or even frustration; instead, they secretly withdraw from the interaction and sometimes from the group.

A vital facilitation capability is to sense how individuals feel and understand how to react to a specific situation, ensuring they do not let out their frustrations on others.

In every group, the whole is larger than the bits, and the “chemistry” of the group normally represents typical feelings: eagerness, restlessness, frustration, dissatisfaction, excitement, scepticism, or even silliness. For skillful facilitation, perceiving and reacting to the dynamic of the community is necessary.

When someone else has approached you to facilitate an operation, ensure that you properly advise him or her as to the final design of the event to ensure that all members are well informed, hence better decision making.

Listening Ability

Acute and active attention, both to the clear nature of language and also to their sound and implied meaning, is one way the facilitator begins to sense the emotions of individuals. A successful facilitator employs “active listening”, where he or she may quote, outline, or respond specifically to what the speaker said to ensure that the audience interpreted the meaning of the speaker correctly. This is particularly important if the speaker is unsure or the team becomes territorial.

In certain group process, an open conversation, well facilitated, might be the easiest alternative. But ask yourself how you can generate the engagement you need to handle the dialogue with the number of persons participating in this process.
There is need for an acute attention to sense the emotions of team members.

Recognize when a person lifts their hand to let them know that they have been heard and designated. Eye communication is essential; it provides a bond between the facilitator and the participants.

It helps the facilitator to read faces to understand whether someone is confused, restless or unhappy, and should be called upon to answer. Eye contact helps to keep the truth of the meeting concentrated on everybody and hence increases your listening ability actively and acutely.

Tactfulness

Perhaps, for the sake of the party, the facilitator must take unpleasant acts or say inappropriate stuff. It is important to have the capacity to do so diplomatically. Examples include a group debate dominated by one individual or a group of silent participants.

The facilitator will find a way to motivate the team, using subtle tact, so everyone can contribute and get the best out of the workshop. A participant will also ask a question, then ramble on to finally answer his own question.

When they’re off track and ask how their argument coincides into the agenda item being debated, it is fine to politely interrupt others. If it doesn’t, tell them where it will be interacted with or write it in the “parking structure.”

This is where subsequent consideration is focused on things and suggestions that are not immediately applicable. A tactful, early implementation of ground rules improves the position of the facilitator and makes everybody more self-disciplined. You need to recognize when to take a leading role.

Leading and Monitoring the Meeting

Set up rules; rules should be followed in the meeting by participants. How can individuals communicate? How are you going to ensure that individuals value each other’s ideas? How are the issues going to be handled?

In advance, you can prepare certain ground rules and suggest and obtain consensus on them at the beginning of the case. Set the scene. You can run through the priorities and agenda here. Make sure everybody knows their position and what the community aims to accomplish.

Neutral Facilitator Position

While you are adopting a neutral position as the facilitator, you need to be aware, listen carefully, and be interested and committed. Listen, participate and include. For other participants, this sets a clear precedent, which also means you are still able to intervene in facilitation forms. Is everybody engaged?

How would you get them to be, if not? How do you achieve greater involvement? Track checkpoints and summarize. Keep the agenda in check, remind people what they have done and what is next.

You ought to make sure everybody presents themselves, or maybe use good icebreakers to get the session off to a solid start.
Make sure individuals stay focused and involved.

Collaborative Effort and Commitment

Collaborative learning can seem daunting and inefficient, and at times a facilitator is compelled to take on the conventional teacher’s familiar role and guide instead of encouraging it. A sincere belief about the motivating importance of cooperative learning, however, will assist the facilitator to resist a dominating position.

A successful facilitator is likewise prepared to share facilitation with those in the party. The aim is always to hold the easiest, most successful debate. Look for any side debates and close them.

The world is facing a pandemic and virtual meetings have become increasingly popular. Before the pandemic virtual meetings was something that many companies and organizations wanted to avoid as much as possible. This was because conventional intelligence says that in order to achieve better team collaboration, there is a need for face-to-face meetings.

Virtual meetings pose a number of concerns such as lack of engagement and social isolation. For these main reasons, most companies are trying to strategise on ways of discussing their agendas by running a successful and fruitful virtual meeting. But how to do it?

The guiding aspects of running a great virtual meeting are attributed to things that are done before the meeting, and things that are done during the meeting.

Preparations done before the meeting have a great impact on how successful the meeting is going to be, just like the things done during the meeting. The following is a comprehensive list of the best yet most simple practices to ensure the virtual meeting is great.

Preparing For the Meeting

The first thing is to make sure that all the members who are expected to participate are informed prior to the meeting. The meeting invitation should be a few weeks or days before the actual meeting to give the members time to prepare adequately. The agenda or agendas of the meeting should be included in the invitation. The invitation is made through an email, text or call.

It is important that before the meeting, all the problems that might occur during the meeting are identified and solved before the meeting starts. These problems might include different time zones, poor network coverage and availability of participants.

Choosing the best digital facilitation tool, such as Howspace, to hold your meeting is directly related to the success of the meeting. The rules to be followed during the virtual meeting should be clearly indicated.

Things To Do Before the Meeting

It is best to use videos when having to have a virtual meeting. Video is the best way rather than using conference calls; it brings a personalized conversation and every participant is engaged. Since participants can see each other, they are more likely to pay attention.

The facilitator should ensure there is a dial-in option. The video option should be turned on and the audio off to avoid unnecessary noises and confusion.

The participant should be ready with their opinions about their agenda. Both the participants and facilitator should ensure to check the tech they are using. There is no need to delay a meeting by 20 minutes because participants don’t know how to join the meeting or the software is outdated and requires an update.

To run a great virtual meeting, preparing participants is crucial. This will make them focused and feel safe.

Preparing Is the Key

The more the participants and facilitator are prepared, the easier it is to achieve a successful meeting. As said earlier, the facilitator should ensure that everyone is informed prior to the meeting.

The agenda should be stated clearly so the participants can have time to prepare questions or output. When it comes to running the actual meeting, the facilitators and participants have an easier time and more of the meeting’s agenda is achieved.

Things To Do During the Actual Meeting

During the meeting, everyone should ensure their video is turned on and the audio is turned off.

Whenever it is a participant’s turn to engage, they can turn on the audio. After everyone joins the meeting, the facilitator opens with a slight remark and everyone should get down to business. Since everyone knows the agenda, everybody should stick to basics.

The facilitator should establish the etiquette of the meeting before tackling the agenda.The participants and facilitator have the task of ensuring that the schedule is followed as strictly as possible. This can be achieved by reducing the presentation time. Getting participants to engage without talking over each other is difficult.

The facilitator should call out on each participant at a time before the final decision for the meeting is made. This creates a safe space and participants are more engaged.

We have also had a virtual meeting with a team of 15 members. The facilitator was very engaging and no one was bored. The meeting was very productive since everyone was given a chance to speak their mind.

On the other hand the facilitator did not communicate the agenda in the invitation. This brought a lot of confusion for about 10 minutes as we were trying to figure out the agenda of the meeting. Luckily, after that all was done in a very professional and efficient way!

Things To Do After the Meeting

A successful virtual meeting is also attributed to what participants do after the meeting. After the agenda of the meeting has been discussed, the meeting members can have a light talk. The facilitator can ask for any other business that is not included in the agenda. Participants are likely to open up more and share any doubts or reservations. The light conversation can take 10 to 20 minutes.

For the future, to make sure that next meetings go smoothly, the facilitator should ask if there were any issues in the meeting. If any issues have been raised, the facilitator can then ask if there is any way that it can be made better next time. The last thing to do is summarise the meeting and debrief the members.

Summarizing It Up

The first thing the participants should set is the location of the meeting. It should be quiet and there should be minimum distractions. The facilitator should send an agenda before the meeting. The participants should be in time for the meeting and keep it simple and straight to the point. It is also important to include a manageable number of participants, to ensure a more productive virtual meeting.

With a wide selection of software for holding virtual meetings, it is important to choose the best tool for the meeting. This can be done by checking the software available, checking their limitations and also their advantages. Another important thing is ensuring that the software and tech are working properly to avoid delays. Having a strong network connection is also important so that all the points are heard and clear.

During the coronavirus pandemic, remote working has been adopted by the majority of, if not all, office-based businesses.

Remote working is a style of working that allows people from various fields to work in a different setup aside from the custom one usually housed in an office complex. This mode of working has several benefits to you, both as an employer or employee in that you may work in any formal or informal setup of your choice.

This creates comfort and reduced pressure on employees. Aside from that, if you set goals in your organization as an employer, you may realize that the goals set can be easily achieved since everyone around you is motivated to work.

Companies Need to Change

Many companies are now looking to change to a remote working system because this is a strategy that has its fair share of benefits. In most parts of the world it is of course now basically mandatory. This is also listed among the top strategies being pushed forward towards achieving goals on climate change.

Among the main advantages of remote working is the fact that you will not have to commute all the way to your workplace. This means that your productivity will increase due to more time – the time wasted in traffic may actually be used more usefully.

One colleague of ours shared on LinkedIn just recently about the fact that since spring 2020, he’s had two extra hours every working day – just because of working remotely!

Another benefit is that job opportunities will spread across the globe and the workforce will be less limited. This is important to companies because more people will get to know the organizations, meaning boosts in revenue. However, it is important to note that as much as it may seem like a productive idea, it may provide an equal share of downturns for the organization.

This is because there is a feeling of isolation connected to remote work. That may sometimes lead to depression. Needless to say, this factor may affect productivity. Alternatively, you may face distractions from pets, children or your spouse if you are working from home. This definitely leads to less productivity.

Communication may also be a challenge if you are trying to manage people working remotely because you don’t have control over their availability or urgency according to situations that may arise. Therefore, this is a strategy that should be well researched and planned to obtain the most positive results. We recommend that you and your company or organization choose a proper project management, marketing automation tool or/and digital facilitation tool.

What Do You Need to Work Remotely?

In order to make remote working to be achievable, various platforms have to be put in place to achieve the desired results. This means that telecommunication companies need to come together to achieve this venture. As you read further, you will get to understand the important tools you need in order to work remotely comfortably.

One of those tools is a mobile hotspot. It is obvious that in order to work remotely, you need to be connected to the internet. Therefore, you may acquire a wireless internet connection or mobile hotspot. Mobile hotspots are important to serve as back up in case you lose power or internet access. This means you are always connected.

Another tool is the remote desktop software feature. This feature is very important as it will enable you to connect to a computer in another location, meaning you will be able to access anything you need comfortably from where you are.

Other Tools to Consider

Team chat apps are also effective in making sure that there is active communication between co-workers, therefore increasing better unity and cooperation among your colleagues. Also, video conferencing applications such as Zoom are very important, as you will not have to personally attend meetings. This means you will not be restricted to one location.

Nowadays there are also many apps for phones that enable a seamless work flow without having to stay at one place.

There are also cloud storage tools which also serve as a means of storing files. This feature is convenient because it works on all devices. One such important tool is Dropbox or any other type of service that gives you more storage space.

These tools are useful for when you find yourself wanting to share a very large file which may be difficult to send through email. Therefore, investing in these types of services will ensure that you can share large files such as PowerPoint presentations and large sketches.

There are also note-taking applications that come with a feature that helps you remain organized by storing things you may need to read quickly. This feature is known as the web-clipping feature and is a good way of getting rid of unnecessary icons on your desktop.

Finally, you should invest in a good security tool such as file and disk encryption, online backup, two-factor authentication, a good VPN and automation tools. This is important because all your personal data should be safely stored to avoid it landing in the wrong hands.

Apply For a Job from Anywhere

Remote working is advantageous because you will not have to present yourself physically to look for a job. In fact, it might be actually comfortable if you undergo an interview from a place of your choice. This creates confidence rather than having to present yourself somewhere you are not familiar with. Also, there is no limitation to states or countries when it comes to finding jobs.

This is because as long as you have the necessary skills needed in a certain firm, you will not be prohibited from applying as everything will be done online. This means that you are likely to have the chance to work for international organizations without the hassle of commuting from one place to another.

Different kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures are brought together, meaning remote working can also be used as a tool for global peaceful integration among people.

An Example: Central Asia As a Remote Working Destination

Since you can work from anywhere, why not explore the world at the same time? Central Asian destinations are generally not very well known but especially Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan offer good opportunities as remote work destinations. Most importantly they have good and fairly reliable internet connections both by landlines and through the mobile data connections as a backup connection.

The best places with all the necessities for working are of course the capitals: Tashkent, Astana and Bishkek but we should not forget Almaty or Samarkand either. Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are not recommended due to internet restrictions.

All the above mentioned cities offer inexpensive accommodation and live expat communities.

Visas are not anymore an issue for any EU citizen or a traveller from other Western countries. Income taxation of officially registered foreign workers in Central Asian countries varies between 10 – 20 % depending on the country.

Other Benefits of Working Remotely

Also, working remotely can be very helpful to persons living with disabilities. You may find yourself unable to apply for a position that fits your professional merits due to a disability that may prohibit you from moving or working in an office.

By enabling each government entity or private sector to have a remote working system, this will create equal opportunities for everyone without having to exclude anyone due to their physical challenges.

Therefore, the goal of equal employment opportunities will be achieved.

What Happens After Covid-19?

It is conclusive to say that remote working has worked quite well for many during this period of Covid-19 and continuing with this system even after the pandemic will be very promising.

In fact, it seems many companies have already realized that adapting to this system in this technological era is the way to go because companies are able to reach out to a larger crowd across the globe, therefore creating a boost in economic growth.

The world is also advancing towards technological advancements as the majority of governments invest in communication infrastructures to facilitate easy internet access to each of its citizens. This means that the world is quickly advancing further towards a remote working society. The challenges for hybrid work model are also already here.

The popular usage of virtual platforms to host business events is not breaking news. With the current state of global affairs, more and more companies are turning to online video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams, as an alternative to host their events. But many companies still remain sceptical about the virtual changeover. This article will look at virtual events in more detail.

The use of online video conferencing platforms to host business events is not unique to current restrictions. Many companies with employees all over the world have already been using virtual business events as a way to bring their workers together for some time, despite geographic distances.

The popularity of virtual business events is only increasing as a way to host a large number of people from many different locations. This you too might have already experienced for instance last Christmas, when companies all over the world organized Christmas parties online.

The positive aspects

There are a great many positive aspects surrounding virtual business events. The reason why such a large number of companies choose virtual events is often varied. Some companies prefer the online format as a way to keep their workers in the loop, without having to invest time, money and effort into organizing an external event. Others find the online format to be more interactive than an in-person event.

Companies that host virtual business events come from all aspects of commerce and culture, from consultancy firms to universities, from theatre-companies to insurance firms.

This is mainly because online business events can be flexible for the user. The platform itself stays the same, and there is no obligation to find a location to source specific needs.

The drawbacks

It is true that many companies would prefer to host their business events in person. This is often due to the fact that some companies prefer the element of face-to-face interaction over virtual meetings. With virtual business events, even though costs are usually saved on hiring a location, time and effort can be lost due to technical problems, such as poor internet connection and other related issues.

Companies who aim to host a virtual business event online may come up against some reluctance from their employees as well as their clients. This could be because the employees in question have had previous negative experiences with online events, where they have been unable to connect or to receive information clearly.

Taking this into consideration, if your company is planning to host virtual business events, it should make an effort to bridge this gap with your employees, as well as your guests.

How to plan a virtual business event

When planning a virtual business event, it is worthwhile to do some research into this sort of event hosting first. If you are organizing an event soon, we strongly advice you to use a virtual facilitator, if possible.

Before the event, your company should investigate what sort of problems you will face likely, just as much as weighing up all of the possible benefits of hosting an online virtual business event in general. Above all, it is essential to find out if the employees or clients who are invited will have the right equipment to attend the event.

The platforms

One question your company and many other companies hosting this kind of event might have is what application to use. There are numerous platforms to choose from when hosting a virtual business event online. Whether the choice is Zoom, Skype, Howspace facilitation tool, Microsoft Teams, or another application, your company should do some research into this first.

It’s important that you make sure that the choice is completely suitable for all your company’s and your guests’ needs. The choice of online platform for hosting a virtual business event is important for several reasons, and this is something not many seem to consider, or not at least as much as they probably should.

First of all, if your company is hosting a large event, you will need to choose a virtual video conferencing platform that is able to support a large number of people at the same time. Another question is subscription. If it is a paid service, some people may be unable to have access.

Virtual etiquette

As in a real meeting or business event in-person, in a virtual business event online, there are certain expected rules of etiquette. When these are followed, the whole event will run a lot more smoothly, but for clients and employees with less experience, they may not know exactly what this involves. It is important to make any of these guidelines clear before the virtual event takes place.

One such rule includes the use of microphones and webcams. If your company is hosting a virtual business event online with perhaps one hundred or more people invited to attend, it will be impossible to hear anything if every single participant has their microphone switched on. Even one or two attendees with their microphone on may disrupt the event if they are not aware others can hear them.

Technical faults

Almost no meeting or event is ever as perfect as planned, whether it is in-person or online, as a virtual business event. You must take into consideration that there may be some technical issues with the event that affect one or two people in attendance, or sometimes the whole meeting. If these problems are understood in advance, they can be dealt with much more quickly and effectively should they occur.

Just as at an in-person business event, there are contingency plans should something go wrong, the same measures should be taken in hosting a virtual business event. Your company or organization must take into consideration the fact that many of the attendees may be coming from an area with a poorer internet connection, or some may have never attended a virtual business event online before. This can be remedied with good instructions.

Virtual events are here to stay

Whatever the opinion of contemporary companies on the benefits and drawbacks of virtual business events hosted online, it appears more and more likely that they are here to stay.

The growing popularity of these events, as well as the global situation forcing many companies to find an alternative to their usual business event procedures, means that an increasing number of companies are choosing to host their business events online.

There’s no reason for you and your company to not be a part of this progress.

The companies willing to adapt to this growing trend are the ones who are more likely to benefit from its many advantages, such as lower operational costs and wider geographical reach.

For this reason, it is important for companies to understand the rise of virtual business events held online as a useful development. Whatever field your company works in, virtual business events are a valuable tool at your disposal.

Read Next: The best tools for videoconferencing

There has been a massive increase in the number of remote workers as a result of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Many companies around the globe now resort to virtual meetings instead of the regular face-to-face meetings in a bid to help reduce the spread of the COVID-19.

However, there are some challenges that many people face when it comes to virtual meetings.

Some of these challenges are associated with the tools used for setting up the meetings. In this article, we’ll discuss a few of these common challenges and give you some useful tips to help you tackle them. Let’s get started!

Distant Time Zone

The first challenge that many people face when it comes to virtual meetings is distant time zones. Sometimes, the attendants of your meeting may be from many continents with different time zones. As a manager or supervisor, especially without a proper digital facilitation tool, it may be challenging to set a time for your virtual meeting that’ll be convenient for everyone.

You will need to ask everyone that will be involved in the virtual meeting and show that they are considered and valued. Otherwise, you may end up creating a difficult environment for your virtual meeting if you schedule it for a time that is not accepted by many participants.

Problems Joining the Virtual Meeting

One other common challenge that many people face concerning virtual meetings is joining the meeting itself. To join any virtual meeting, the participants are usually required to download an app which may be a third-party app or a proprietary app. Aside from that, the whole process relies on the internet.

If some of your teammates cannot download the required app on their device or their internet connection is not strong enough, they may be unable to join the meeting. Even if they could, they may be unable to follow the meeting or make any contribution as a result of problems with their internet connection. This we have faced multiple times ourselves.

Sometimes the problem is within the hosts of the event or learning session: if the virtual facilitator hasn’t been delivering proper instructions on how to join, there might be surprises along the way.

As an example, we were attending a training session from a marketing agency. We were told that the session would be held in Zoom, but once the session started, some participants had trouble signing in, as they did not have Zoom downloaded to their device. On most cases this is not an issue, as one can participate via Zoom link, but this time attending required the software to be downloaded. This was not told beforehand, and let to problems when launching the training session.

Screen Sharing Is Often Complex and Ineffective

Screen sharing is common in virtual meetings. This may be sharing of a screen that shows the chart of some data, a video or any other thing. One flaw with many video conferencing software is that screen sharing is slow and lags. This is because it is dependent on how good the internet connection is.

Thus, some participants of the virtual meeting may see the shared screen faster while for others, it may take some time. Apart from lagging, the resolution is sometimes poor and participants may not be able to see what is being shared clearly, especially if they are using a larger inch screen.

One thing that has to be mentioned here is that the one who is sharing the screen might not have prepared to do so in the best possible way. This can lead to embarrassing situations: maybe there’s something on the screen that they wouldn’t care to share with a bunch of people after all!

Sensitive Data May Be Accidentally Shared

Because it is common for many people to use their personal desktop computer or mobile devices to join and participate in virtual meetings, there is the possibility that a participant may accidentally share sensitive data.

Thankfully, many platforms now allow sharing of a single application and not the entire screen.

Distraction

With virtual meetings, it is easy for participants to get distracted. From kids running around the house to attention-seeking dogs, there are several factors that can distract and divert the focus of a participant in a virtual meeting. And when people are distracted, they find it difficult to contribute meaningfully.

Aside from that, it can be challenging for people to stay focused on a screen for hours. Thus, when scheduling virtual meetings, you should ensure that it doesn’t take too much time because the longer the time it takes, the shorter the attention span of the participant may be.

Social Cues

In face-to-face meetings, it’s easy to read social cues and know when your audience is bored, lost or engaged. However, the case is different for virtual meetings. Thus, there is a risk of a misunderstanding occurring, especially if some participants remain silent when they did not get the meaning of what is being said.

To help reduce the possibility of misunderstandings happening, you need to make the virtual meeting environment a friendly one where participants can ask questions without fear. Participants can also use reaction icons to indicate that they are lost or not in support of what is being said without interrupting the current speaker.

Too Many Meetings

Another major challenge of virtual meetings is that there tend to be too many meetings in a bid to track the productivity of remote workers or keep them in the loop on what is going on. However, instead of improving the productivity of the team, having too many meetings may do the opposite.

Before you schedule any meetings, ensure it is essential and also create a supercharged agenda for it. Every participant should be aware of this agenda prior to the start of the meeting to avoid using too much time.

Additionally, you should incorporate real-time productivity tracking and communication tools to help keep everyone in the loop.

Unclear Expectations and Points

According to BayAtlantic University, there are four types of learners – visual, auditory, kinesthetic and reading/writing learners. Thus, when hosting a virtual meeting, you as well as other participants need to have all these types of learners in mind and communicate in a way that they will understand without leaving anyone behind.

Use Visual Aids and Interaction

You may want to consider the use of visual aids and interactive tools such as document sharing to help capture visual learners. In addition, you can create bullet point notes which reading/writing learners will find useful, and also ask the auditory learners that are part of the meeting to comment on points.

Benefit More From Virtual Meetings

Despite all the challenges that come with virtual meetings, there is no denying that they are useful. When you use the right approach for scheduling your meeting and you use the right tools, then you can be confident that virtual meetings can help increase the productivity of your team at a low cost.

Not to mention that it’ll also help the whole team stay connected. As a manager or team lead, you should not rely only on virtual meetings as a way of improving the productivity of your team. Instead, you should encourage real-time communication among your team members so that everyone will be kept in the loop.

Final Thoughts

We’ve explained some of the common challenges that many face when it comes to virtual meetings. These challenges are surmountable by using the right approach. Always have it in mind that virtual meetings cannot totally substitute face-to-face meetings, so whenever possible, you should let your team meet physically for meetings. During this pandemic this of course is not possible.

A facilitator is someone who helps teams having issues with communication, problem-solving abilities or progressive output. Facilitators assist a group of people to identify collective objectives identified from observed issues and help them to work together to achieve these objectives. This helps to also bring up new ideas to improve output from the team. But how does one become a facilitator?

Technically, a facilitator does not need to be an expert in the subject of discussion. In fact, a facilitator’s focus is majorly the people in a team and on how to get them to work together. Naturally, facilitators enjoy leading and guiding others.

This goes both in traditional as well as in modern, digital facilitation. Facilitators usually also have a lot of self-confidence when speaking in public. These are then basically the first traits that you should have, if you wish to become a professional facilitator. If however, you don’t possess these traits already, don’t worry. These are things that anyone can learn!

Education requirement for facilitators

Nowadays there are hundreds of facilitator courses online that basically anyone can take. These courses teach you the basic skills of a facilitator: some of the courses are free of charge, others can go up to as high as hundreds of euros or dollars. Udemy, for instance, offers various kinds of courses that help you to learn the difference between a good facilitator and a good speaker. Courses also teach you to know when and how to interrupt, and how not to put your own ideas on the spotlight.

In general, the educational requirements of a facilitator can depend on the type of session that you plan to facilitate. Also, this depends on the type and size of the organization you work for. As an example, let’s think of the after-school program facilitators.

A lot of after-school programs are designed to teach young people group-oriented skills such as communication and teamwork. After-school program facilitators may not need a formal post-secondary certificate, although having a degree or diploma in a field such as education or any field that relates to working with young people is usually considered an asset. Mainly, you need to have a passion to work with young people and to know the right tools for it.

Listen Actively

Although the participants attend a workshop to listen to a facilitator, it is also a good practice for the facilitator to listen to the participants. By listening to participants, facilitators will find it easier to accomplish their goals. Additionally, those who feel they are being listened to tend to also listen better.

As a facilitator you can have in between question and answer sessions even before the end of the presentation. Also, you can pick out members at random to give your ideas on how to make progress forward. As a facilitator you should also be open-minded when listening and have the ability to place yourself in the shoes of the participants.

Improve Your Speaking Skill

To be a good facilitator, you need to have a strong speaking skill. Participants automatically see a facilitator as a figure of authority in the field they represent. As a facilitator you must be able to convey your ideas through speaking.

This must come with a good command of the language you as a facilitator want to use.

Control Distractions, Including Distracting Participants

One useful skill that good facilitators have mastered is the ability to control distraction. Since you are dealing with human beings, there are bound to be distractions. You need to develop systems to curb these distractions.

One way is by using the individual causing a distraction as part of your teaching.

Attributes Of a Good Facilitator

Facilitation is not limited to standing before a group of people and taking down thoughts or talking. It involves a technique to naturally guide the meeting in the most constructive and efficient way possible.

As a facilitator you must have good organizational skills. You should know how to use the best digital facilitation tools, too. It’s also essential that you can build a system that works out of chaos.

A good facilitator induces discussion among participants, especially those who do not speak out naturally. Also, a good facilitator is idea-driven and always finds ways to make groups of people understand these ideas and work towards them to have the desired result. A good facilitator does not force ideas on participants, and this is important to keep in mind always.

Facilitating a Meeting

When setting up a meeting to facilitate, there are certain things you should have in mind. The first part is to do enough research to get acquainted with the subject matter. Although you are not expected to be an expert, it is important to hold a decent level of knowledge on the topic.

After the planning phase, the next step is to set up an agenda. This is a list of focus for the session. When there is an agenda, the session is well structured. However, you can leave room for digression.

Establish Ground Rules to Encourage Positive Group Interaction

When running a facilitation session, you should understand that you are not a lecturer. There should be a sense of participation from the audience. This will help you understand if the participants are catching on as you proceed further into the session.

You should make sure that every participant contributes to the workshop. This is something that you most likely will learn over time: the more you facilitate the better you get.

As the session proceeds, you should ensure that the meeting moves in the intended direction – the reason being that there is a possibility of going off track and losing the real focus of the meeting. Although this is allowed, it is your duty as the facilitator to keep the meeting on track.

Examples of Different Types of Facilitators

There are multiple areas of working and private life that you can become a facilitator in. Here we listed some examples:

Employment Workshop Facilitator

Employment workshops are typically focused on groups of adults to increase their possibility of employment. This is done by educating them in skills such as communication, teamwork and customer service.

This also includes introducing them to employment opportunities. To be an employment workshop facilitator, you will typically need at least an undergraduate degree in psychology or human services.

Family Health Workshop Facilitator

The focus of a family health workshop facilitator is to improve positive family functioning through skill-building and knowledge sharing. Facilitators for family health-related programs do typically need at least an undergraduate degree in a field such as social work, family ecology or human services.

Final Thoughts On Becoming a Facilitator

Before becoming a facilitator, you need to be sure you are comfortable with public speaking and also have an interest in leading. The type of organization you work with usually determines the type of facilitator you become. However, regardless of the institution, project or a topic, one common fact is that you must be passionate about working with people. That’s the first step in becoming a facilitator.

Many businesses, organizations, and establishments currently conduct their meetings virtually.

Virtual sessions have unique challenges and opportunities, as you can imagine. Maybe you already have experience about that yourself?

Virtual sessions tend to need specialized facilitation techniques, knowledge, and strategy. Here a professional virtual facilitator is the answer.

For companies looking for ways to innovate rapidly, engage their workers more, or grow their business continually during the period of an establishment developmental process, a virtual facilitator might be something to consider of hiring. In this article we explore the reasons why your organization, too, should start thinking about using a digital facilitator.

Make Everyone’s Voice Heard

It’s not new that us people ´, we crave to be listened to. However, it’s not easy to get every member of a large – or even a smaller organization involved in an organizational development process.

Though virtual facilitators are not supernatural bullets that’ll mystically fix all the problems associated with business developmental initiatives, they help to solve the people part of the puzzle. By bringing everyone into a shared workspace where they can ask questions and collaborate with each other, team members will now know that everyone’s opinion matters.

The feeling of being heard gives every member of an organization a sense of belonging and importance. We feel like we are being appreciated and that our voice matters in the establishment.

It’s almost impossible to facilitate a meeting or any type of virtual event in such a way that it will satisfy every member’s wishes. On the other hand a virtual facilitator can bring a lot to the team and make the event run smoother.

Develop a Safe Environment for Different Character Traits

As we all know, in a face to face meeting setting, it’s easy for few individuals to hijack the meeting while some members sit in absolute quietness praying in their heart for the meeting to end so they can leave. At the same time few others wish they could be allowed to communicate using the medium they’re comfortable with.

Consider the fact that not everyone in an organization has the same thinking capacity – some are fast thinkers while others are not. Some members of your team prefer to write rather than talk, some even prefer to communicate their thoughts through images, charts and mind maps.

Therefore it’s important to provide members of your organization many communication channels – not just the one you are most comfortable with. With this, too, a virtual facilitator may help you and your team.

Importance of Different Communication Mediums

When members of your company or an organization are not given a conducive environment to air their views, your organization will not be able to benefit from the knowledge, observation, and contributions of every member.

This means that the your company will continually depend on the ideas of a few members who are comfortable using the communication channel provided while others stay silent.

Surely, this you do not want to see happening in your team. Virtual facilitators are a perfect solution in these types of situations. They can help you to bring out the best in every member of your team, in more ways than just one.

Lacking New Ideas

What to do, if it looks like your team members are not providing any new good answers or ideas? You want them to put on their thinking caps, but you have no idea how to do that? Here bringing a facilitator on board is a good idea. A facilitator can inspire team members to participate and by that bring in new and creative solutions.

Giving members of your team a way to communicate their thoughts using the medium they are comfortable with, your organization will truly benefit from every member’s ideas, observations and points of views.

Mediums for this can be for instance writing, info graphics, videos and images. This will sure increase your team’s productivity and expansion level. Virtual facilitators bring in all the necessary tools, so you won’t have to.

Co-creation is the Best for An Organization

Research from Great Place to Work has shown that businesses that encourage their members to innovate will see 5.5% revenue higher than those who rely on the innovation of a few members of its organization. The reason for this is that no individual can possibly possess the collective intelligence of a big establishment.

Therefore, by figuring out ways to listen to everyone in the company, your business should be able to utilize the expertise, skills, and opinions of every member of the establishment. That way the business will be sure to deliver better results in figures and in employee satisfaction. In a nutshell, creating a collaborative culture is necessary for business growth and for better team work in general.

Share the Duty of Documentation

Generally, the facilitator is responsible for post workspace documentation, but by having a virtual workspace, your business can assign documentation between the participants and prepare it into a workshop. A facilitator can encourage your team members to think outside the box and share pictures and videos in addition to the text base of what was discussed.

Having every one of the members of the team perform this task will help the memory of the virtual meeting last longer on every member’s mind. There’s also the fact that even those who were not present in the sessions can easily catch up. That way everyone is carried along, with no one left behind.

Ask for Feedback

Every organizational change process always differs from the previous ones, which is the reason why it is important for a business and an organization to stay open to feedback. That will help to figure out areas where they are performing well and areas where they need improvement.

With this information, it’s possible to optimize work for better business results.

Effect of Not Asking for Feedback

Not asking for feedback is dangerous to the growth of an establishment, no matter the size of it. There are things that junior employees know or have heard about the business that the senior staff might not know.

Creating a good environment that enables the business to ask for feedback from its employees is a gold mine. This can be done with the help of a virtual facilitator.

Virtual Facilitator Collects the Feedback

If you are not comfortable with the idea of collecting the feedback yourself, let the virtual facilitator do that instead. An experienced facilitator not only gathers the feedback but he/she will also pin point the most important parts, and help your team in solving them and moving forward.

Neutral Party Needed

Most times there are topics that require a neutral person to handle them and to motivate the team members. When a neutral party takes that topic and addresses it, it is more likely to encourage total participation.

Remember: you don’t have to do everything on your own. A virtual facilitator has experience on planning and running digital events and work shops. Let a professional help you to improve your team’s work!

Remote therapy is a convenient way of getting a therapy session. There are many reasons why you might want remote therapy—the first and most common being time and the current conditions. With COVID-19 spreading, digital tools for remote therapy are now needed.

Already before COVID pandemic, most of us didn’t have the time to juggle between work, studies, family, and therapy.

We have to prioritize, and something like therapy might take a back seat. Remote therapy ensures that you get to speak to a professional who can render some aid. It ensures that you can have peace of mind and some time to cater to all the different issues you might be facing. Some of the platforms to use can include recordings, messages, and emails.

Remote Therapy – How Does It Work?

The goal of therapy is to have better mental health. Remote therapy works in the same way but online. You get to take advantage of the available tools to reach out to a therapist who, in return, replies using the same tools or platform.

Also known as online or tell therapy, remote therapy works over secure connections and platforms like Skype. For remote therapy to succeed, you need to have a proper internet connection and find a reliable remote therapist.

Reviews can help you in finding a therapist. You should consider choosing a mobile carrier that’s widely available in your vicinity for the best internet connection.

More so, you must pick a communication channel that you are comfortable with. If you want the feeling of a real-life session, you should consider video platforms like Skype and Zoom.

On the other hand not many therapists let you choose the platform yourself, since majority of them are using a digital tool designed specifically for telemedicine.

Digital Tools for Better Mental Health

Remote therapy takes advantage of technological advancements to ensure that you have better mental health. Some of these digital simple tools for virtual meetings that the therapist can utilize will include online support groups.

A therapist can refer you to some online support groups to better your mental health. Since everything is happening online, you’ll find it easier to share your issues even if you want to remain anonymous. You can also learn from the issues that other people within the group are going through.

Meditation and mindfulness apps are other digital tools that some therapists will recommend. These apps work towards helping you reduce depression, anxiety, and stress.

Apps are convenient since you always have them with you and use them whenever you want to feel relieved. Different apps can help you in specific areas like sleep, pain relief, and stress management. Most of these apps can have timers and relaxing music to ensure that you can easily calm down.

Your remote therapy session will in most cases be held through some kind of software. Typically a session is not held in Skype because of security issues. To avoid any issues with the safety and privacy of your sessions, your therapist might use platforms such as Doxyme.

Doxyme Makes Online Sessions Safe

Doxyme is a simple, completely free and fully secured telemedicine solution. The company behind this product has made telemedicine very easy for professionals around the world.

A psycho therapist for instance can simply create a personal room in the platform and start practicing.

Who Is Online Therapy For?

Online therapy can work for everyone. However, it’s ideal for anyone who wants a convenient platform that will save them time. Online therapy helps people better their mental health by dealing with and solving the different issues they face in their day to day lives.

Therefore, it is a perfect solution for someone who doesn’t have the time to visit a therapist’s office or in the current situation wishes to have a remote session instead of a contact session.

Besides, if you reside in a rural community, you might opt for online therapy, since it can take longer to visit a therapist in the nearest town or city. Online therapy helps people who have additional problems like disabilities or illnesses.

It provides them with a chance to speak to professionals who can provide the best psychological support. More so, it can benefit young people who love to use technology every day. Most young people are comfortable on their phones and computers, and online therapy can be convenient and easier for them to appreciate.

Benefits Of Online Therapy

Convenience is one reason why most people love online therapy. You can seek help from anywhere since you can speak to a therapist when at home, work, travelling, or when you can’t attend an in-person session.

There is also another advantage of approachability. As stated earlier, some people are comfortable on their devices. Online therapy provides such people with a platform to air out their troubles to a therapist and obtain some aid.

Using online therapy will also provide you with a chance to express yourself. Unlike an in-person meeting, you can opt for messages and emails in online therapy. If you don’t want to see the therapist, you can leave your camera off while talking to them so they can’t see your face.

Not everyone is comfortable speaking face to face with a therapist, and these messaging options eradicate these issues.

Is Remote Therapy Effective?

Yes, it is. The advantage of remote therapy is that you can follow up with the therapist any time you would like. Therefore, when you encounter a problem, it’s easy to deal with it and lead a healthy life. Studies have also proven that remote therapy is as effective as in-person therapy. You, therefore, shouldn’t worry when considering this form of therapy. With remote therapy, the therapist can utilize some digital tools to ensure that you get the best help.

It’s easier for them to understand you since you can use a communication platform that you are comfortable with. Additionally, since it is cheaper than in-person sessions, you can spend more time with the therapist to ensure that you always iron out all the issues you might be facing.

Remote therapy is effective while being convenient and more approachable than in-person therapy. You can also consult with multiple therapists from different corners of the world without any exorbitant charges.

How Much Does Remote Therapy Cost?

Unlike in-person therapy, remote therapy is cheaper. In some places, you can pay between $100 and $200 per session. The session can be longer since you won’t have to commute to the therapist. You will also find that most of these professionals won’t bill you per hour. Most who bill per hour are the ones who offer in-person sessions that can cost you up to $250.

Remote therapy gets to be cheaper because the therapists, too, won’t have any overhead costs. They can work from home and provide you with the same help they would if it were in person. Besides, you can speak to different therapists around the globe without the need to travel to them.

When paying for remote therapy, you always get to enjoy the best services. However, in-person sessions will require you to be comfortable with the best therapist in your area. Remote therapy, therefore, provides you with more convenience since you can attain immediate and local aid.

Virtual Facilitation is Important because…

You can have a bigger impact through co-creation
An unlimited amount of people can be involved
Everyone can be encouraged to take part and get their voices out
There’s just one place reserved for discussions

Categories of virtual assistance

To understand the importance of virtual facilitation, it’s good to go through the very basics. First, there is the Light Online Facilitation category. It is a start-and-stop coordinator example where the major role of the intermediary is administration. This role includes that of giving access to the digital environment, gathering information, summarizing results of a session as well as ending sessions when the need occurs.

The second category is the Moderate Online Facilitation, which has an overseeing facilitator who aims at encouraging the participants. Furthermore, the person in charge is present throughout the session to ensure smooth operations.

This type is mainly used in the learning environment. The participants are able to get feedback at a personalized level. As you can imagine, being able to give feedback to the team and the participants of each project is crucial.

How to effectively conduct virtual facilitation

To successfully conduct virtual meetings or classes, the participating team should ensure the following is done. First, one should make sure that the norms of the meeting are understood by the members. For example, the technology used should be accessible to every member as well as getting any problems resolved prior to the meeting.

If for instance, not all participants have downloaded the software needed, the start of the meeting or a workshop will get messy and delayed. This already might give you an idea of the importance of virtual facilitation: without a proper facilitator there can be multiple areas of meetings and workshops that can already go wrong in the get-go.

Second, establish a method the participants can follow. This can be achieved through the use of names that are alphabetically ordered as well as assigning people specific numbers for identification. This method gives every single person the chance to contribute to the meeting without the aspect of being bias.

Tools used for Online Services

Online business platforms use things like emails (though they are becoming an old method), Basecamp, and Slack. Basecamp allows the sharing of files, making assignments, and keeping track of due dates. This is limited to the sharing of files and online messages.

Slack is also similar to Basecamp and is limited to sharing files and online messaging. It’s not as sufficient as for instance Howspace facilitation tool. On the other hand is more than suitable for smaller groups and organizations. For online conferencing, these are some of the tools used.

Skype is used to carry out teaching, training and webinars hosting. It allows recording of videos in M4A and MP4 formats as well as messaging. Zoom offers the same services but excludes messaging. Another example is Blackboard, which is exclusively made for teaching.

It’s good to understand that not all tools are suitable for each situation or project. With that being said many of the tools presented on our site are super comprehensive and easy to use in all types of projects.

Other Tools used

Collaboration tools are another category that are used to engage participants virtually. They are designed for internal organization.

For example, the Powernoodle is used in good decision making through the use of an intelligence platform referred to as Stakeholder Intelligence. It allows people to bring ideas for solving problems by using sketches and sticky notes.

Three Dimension Collaborative Tools

These are future tools that are believed to depict the environment of avatars and the aspect of real-time sharing. They are now becoming a must-have tool with new levels of experiences. They include tools like Kahoot, which is used for carrying out surveys, discussions and popping up quizzes. Kahoot is also used in playing group games.

Another example of these 3D tools is Photosphere. Here there is the provision of virtual training as well as a good learning environment. Participants use avatars that resemble them in virtual rooms that are customized by an assistant. The skills are taught in a way that mimics that of real life.

Good Practices for Virtual Conferencing

First, it is important to create team rules for engagement. This enforces good behavior among the participants. An organized method for communication should be used to make sure that everyone takes turns in contributing to the meeting agenda. Furthermore, multitasking should not be allowed. Note that the meeting should be in a quiet place.

At the end of the meeting, it is good practice to at least allocate people a few minutes to comment on the completed session. This helps to evaluate whether the meeting was a success or not. The negative outcomes should be noted for improvement, while the positive ones should be embraced.

Characteristics of a Good Coordinator

A skilled facilitator should create a safe and comfortable environment for the participants and have a rapport with them. He should demonstrate good understanding and mastery of content delivered. He or she should be good at time managing and be technologically literate. For a class, the facilitator should use different approaches to engage learners.

In addition, the person should be capable of multitasking. This is done by going through the screen to see what is going on, who needs to make requests or ask questions and at the same time, be able to maintain the flow of the dialogue. The above characteristics are only perfected through regular practice.

Benefits of Virtual Services

This involves an unlimited number of people and ensures that everyone feels heard through a shared place. In addition, activities like notifications are automated and schedules are used to ensure that work is done in the agreed time.

This is a benefit over manual facilitation where time is greatly wasted by carrying out activities manually.

Challenges

It is hard to read non-verbal signals as well as spotting visual cues. The technology used is also unpredictable because there may be a connection failure that may stop the session from occurring successfully.

Furthermore, a user is required to master the technology being used. In many cases, participants easily drift away.

Online Businesses

These types of businesses use electronic means for business transactions. For example, Amazon conducts its activities using social platforms. Some of the businesses mainly operate in a virtual world.

They offer things that are viable to commerce such as virtual products, property, and services to their customers. A good example is the Second Life.

Virtual enterprises, on the other hand, are networks made up of independent companies linked by technology. Their goal is to share costs, skills, and make it possible to access each other’s markets. The enterprises are formed using a cooperative agreement with no involvement of hierarchy, which leads to achieving a consensus goal.

Application Areas of Facilitation

Virtual facilitation is applied in various situations as well as places such as community development, organizational planning, health activities, leisure activities, workplaces, learning institutions among others.

In general, facilitation is very important, as it serves the purpose of solving problems, decision making, and exchange of information or ideas for people who have a common interest or agenda.