Managing energy and attention online

Teams is tedious, Skype is stultifying and Zoom zaps your brain. We are all spending more and more of our time in virtual meetings. This is challenging for participants. It’s also a conundrum for facilitators and convenors: what can you do to enable group members to stay energised, attentive and engaged?

Short conversations, breaks, ground rules (like no phones and alerts on silent), skilled (and online-appropriate) facilitation all help. But you can do more. You can actively manage energy and attention by building in activities that help people engage.

It’s not always about maximising energy or breaking the ice. It’s about helping people to have the right energy (both quality and quality) and enabling them to attend to the right things. It’s about helping people get ready for what comes next.

The first challenge is to get people fully into the virtual room. They will all have come from doing something else, possibly something that required them to engage in a different way and to use a different type of energy and attention. You can help them manage the transition. This applies not only at the start of a video call but also after a break. This is also a great opportunity to signal how you would like the group to work together, to set the right tone and create positive expectations.

You can help your group get their brains and bodies warmed up (because creativity is physical and emotional as well as cognitive) and develop trust in the group. This matters particularly when you want active participation, creativity and collaboration. That’s not a switch that can simply be turned on if people have previously been slaving over a hot spreadsheet, having a tough conversation with boss or team member or watching the rain because they’re stuck or bored.

I am running a workshop to help you manage energy and attention (particularly) online. We’ll draw on improvised theatre, digging into its veritable treasure-chest of games, exercises and cunning plans to help you do this.

We don’t know how much of our work in future will be online as we tentatively emerge from lock-down. But the insights and techniques for managing energy and attention online work just as well in face-to-face meetings – a group can benefit from your support however you are meeting.

If you facilitate or chair online (or face to face) meetings, join me for a short (75 minute) workshop on March 30thd at 10 am. Tickets are £25. And there are 3 free tickets if you are keen but the price is a barrier for you. For a free ticket, email me at stephen@unleashinglistening.com You can find out more and get tickets here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/managing-energy-and-attention-online-tickets-144190424441