Despite the COVID-19 outbreak the majority of people still attend governance meetings via the internet. This may be an inconvenience to those who prefer to attend in person, but it’s a great way for administrations and their staff to show their willingness to listen to citizens.
A key challenge is ensuring that the right technology is in place to allow participation that includes video, voice and screen sharing being important components. Many organisations rely on emailing information packages with attachments or file-sharing software that has folders that can be downloaded. However, these options are not able to support the systematic processing and distribution of agenda items.
Another issue is that it’s difficult to engage in casual conversations, which are usually part of face-to-face meetings. However, it’s a key way that people are able to connect and build trust with one another, so enabling this by opening the meeting early and including the opportunity for informal conversations, or even using chat within your virtual meeting platform for smaller groups, can assist in creating the relationships necessary for solid and efficient governance.
Governance meetings can also be used to fine-tune the roles and responsibilities in case new team members are brought on or existing roles are modified or new work is required. This can governance online meetings prevent such discussions from hijacking other meetings and help the team to be effective and efficient.