Virtual Facilitation

15Engage the Participants

Figure 15.1

Engagement is crucial to get people to follow you, give you the input and reach the result. If you believe that business is about people, then you know that business is about engagement. Without engagement, few things will change. We believe that it's key to the process of facilitation and that it's your responsibility as the facilitator to make engagement happen.

What we hear from our clients is that they find it difficult to create engagement during virtual sessions. Partly due to the fact that people expect very effective sessions and partly due to the fact that they don't know how to do it. We believe it is crucial for a good virtual session to engage the participants and find those workarounds that can make it happen in a virtual setting. And yes, you can also do an energiser in a virtual meeting.

There are several elements that you need to be aware of when it comes to engaging the participants in your session and holding that engagement.

Know the attention span

In a virtual meeting our attention span – how long we can focus and concentrate for – is very limited. Usually, in a physical setting, the rule of thumb is that adults can concentrate for around 20 minutes. In a virtual setting that average is even lower, because it's much harder to concentrate and remain engaged when you're not physically involved and socially connected. ...