Tips for Whiteboard sessions for distant teams
1Collaboration makes a workplace successful, and you cannot find a more reasonable way to collaborate other than a whiteboarding session. Whiteboarding sessions involve the collaborative brainstorming process at the time of a meeting when presenting an idea on the whiteboard for digital teams. While whiteboarding is advantageous for motivating collaboration, enhancing creativity, and boosting group communications, leaders should consider that a virtual collaborative whiteboard needs a distinct approach than an in-person whiteboard.
Whiteboarding with distant team
Collaboration is essential for effective workspace performance. As per a study, companies promoting collaboration perform five times better than those that don’t. Handling digital teams that boosts collaborations needs an approach different from in-person teams. Distant teams require virtual meeting tools to have efficient communication. For instance, WFH employees cannot take a coffee break or interact with other employees at the water cooler. Hence, leaders should provide chances for collaboration and instant creativity. A good way to do it is through an online whiteboard.
Why is whiteboarding important?
There are three reasons which make whiteboarding effective for virtual team collaboration.
Visual thinking
Visually showcasing your ideas is engaging and attractive for the viewers and proposes better results. Visual thinking is linked to better critical analysis, effective problem solving and gives everyone a chance to participate.
Collaboration
Whiteboard is the ideal platform for collaboration, especially for digital teams. It allows everyone to participate in a meeting rather than sitting and monitoring.
Brainstorming
Whiteboard is efficient for the brainstorming process as it is the ideal platform to motivate new ideas. With things visually in front of the eyes of the team members, more ideas will flow in.
Whiteboarding techniques
So, how should you host a whiteboarding session to stimulate ideas, make your team think, and ensure better involvement of every member?
Use visual equipment
A major advantage of whiteboarding is using visuals to carry out meetings. Ensure when opting for a whiteboarding session, the texts and visuals are clear and efficiently organized. With a virtual whiteboard session, you can use different digital tools to boost engagement and make the session more interactive and personal.
Concentrate on the objectives
Remember the goals of conducting the whiteboarding session. To ensure you are aligned with the task and brainstorming session works out well, ensure every member acts according to the goals.
Park other ideas for afterward
While whiteboarding, several ideas may crop up which may not be directly related to your current session. Hence, you shouldn’t distract the meeting but rather park the next session’s ideas.
Use a template
You can use several templates for online whiteboarding to run your sessions in a more organized and focused way. Templates are helpful when choosing how you want to structure your meeting.
A good whiteboarding session works amazingly well for collaboration and ideation, but you should use the right tools to do it in the best way. So, make your whiteboarding more appealing, collaborative, interactive, and effective by combining the right tools, videos, and graphics.
