10: Renee Rubin Ross | Running Inclusive and Interactive Virtual Meetings

Renee Rubin Ross Ph.D., talks about inclusive and effective tools to lead virtual meetings that get participants sharing ideas, interacting and moving towards engagement and action.

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“There are good ways to design and run virtual meetings — acknowledging that all the participation and learning styles exist — and some of it is just increasing awareness.” Click To Tweet

What does it take to run an effective and inclusive virtual meeting? What can we do to stay in touch with our people in times of distancing? In today’s episode, trainer, facilitator, speaker and coach, Renee Rubin Ross, Ph.D., talks about inclusive and effective tools to lead virtual meetings that get participants sharing ideas, interacting and moving towards engagement and action.

Renee Rubin Ross is a leader in the space of board management, organizational development and strategy. She is the founder of The Ross Collective, a consulting firm that designs and leads inclusive, participatory processes for social sector boards and staff. She dedicates her life to leading and designing inclusive strategic planning processes. Committed to racial equity in the nonprofit sector, Dr. Ross supports organizations and individuals in practices that celebrate and amplify diverse voices and perspectives.

Renee has learned through the years that people are successful when they have a safe space to talk about the things that matter most to them. In this episode, she shares with Lindsay how to make your virtual meetings impactful, interactive and (most importantly) inclusive. Listen to this podcast to get the most out of the virtual tools at your disposal and techniques from this expert leader to keep your teams going through the crisis.

Key Takeaways:

(01:26) – How to run effective and inclusive virtual meetings, different forums and formats.

(03:59) – Recommendations around expectation setting, and standard rules for both in-person and remote meetings.

(08:49) – How often you should reach out to your board during times of virtual engagement.

(12:43) – Overall guidelines to ensure real engagement with other members of your board.

(15:15) – Interactive brainstorming: How to use visual engagement and other resources in a virtual setting.

(18:29) – Personality styles in a meeting: from conceptualizers to analyzers, and why it matters.

(24:28) – Reflecting on privilege, power and access as it pertains to our community at large, including truly listening to and caring for others.

(28:20) – Rotating leadership and elevating mindfulness during a virtual meeting.

(36:42) – Renee’s perspective on the field of philanthropy during COVID-19.

A message from Renee

A terrific organization that I want to acknowledge is a recent client, Habitat for Humanity. They are working on the critical issue of affordable housing in California. In addition to their direct work of building houses for individuals who would otherwise not be able to afford them, they advocate for policies that enable wider home ownership.