Now we’ve shifted to meeting online we find out that compared to offline meeting, online collaboration is more intense, condensed and even more effective in some ways. What we usually hear what people are missing is the informal part; catching up, private issues or just silly fun. Those coffee machine moments or coincidentally meeting eachother in the hallways. Do not underestimate those moments; HR and organisation development specialists know very well that the base of successful business, change and a positive organisation culture lies within the informal layer of their organisations.
So we found several ways to add informal parts to an online meeting, for example at the end of a meeting.
One way of ending a session we invented which our participants appreciate very much is as follows:
At the end of the formal session we suddenly put everyone in a breakout room which is called "STREET"
Then we tell everyone that they now are outside on the street. And they have a choice to go home (press the "end meeting" button, or they also can go to another place (breakout room) and chat with whoever is there.
So we show everyone the other breakout rooms, which I usually call things like:
GRAND CAFE, JUICE BAR, HIP RESTAURANT, BAR AROUND THE CORNER, etc. etc.
If it's a playful group we also have titles like "Romantic place at the riverside", and sometimes we also use "teacher room' to invite our students to ask questions or give feedback.
It's a great way for allowing for informal chatting and we often get many people staying in the session for a long time!
