CPA_Practice_Advisor_July_2020 - 19

THE LEADERSHIP ADVISOR

Getting More From Your
Zoom Meetings
AMY VETTER, CPA.CITP, CGMA

Mindful Technologist &
Keynote Speaker
@AmyVetterCPA

IN JANUARY, ZOOM was a niche concern, a videoconferencing service used by businesses
and other organizations to bridge the distance when somebody couldn't make a meeting
in person. Today, after months of work and social restrictions
designed to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom is
nothing less than a part of our culture. Monthly active users
have increased by a factor of 10, and uses are varied. We talk
to our families on Zoom, we party on Zoom, and of course,
we work on Zoom. How well we work on Zoom, though, is
a matter where results may vary.
an issue, polling makes it a
breeze. Do note that users
designated as hosts or co-hosts
for a particular meeting will
not be able to participate in
surveys.

ELIMINATE INMEETING BUSYWORK
WITH SCHEDULING
PRIVILEGES
At this point, I'm willing to bet
that you have a grasp of the basics.
You probably know how to create
and join a meeting and how to
turn your camera and microphone
on and off-and you may even
know how to generate a virtual
background that makes it look like
you're on the moon, at Versailles, or
anywhere else but still stuck in your
house. While these operations have
become the crux of the Zoom experience for many, the platform offers
a number of different advanced
features that will allow you to take
your meetings to the next level.
Leveraging these features and using
a few power user strategies will
allow you to take your meetings to
the next level.

GET QUICK AND CLEAR
RESPONSES WITH
POLLING
If you've ever asked a question to
a large group during a videoconference, you know that getting a
response isn't always straightforward. In some instances, a dozen
people will try to talk at once. In
others, everyone will sheepishly
wait for somebody else to speak
up. Zoom's polling feature is a great
workaround for this inherent shortcoming. Polling allows you to send
a custom survey to all members of
a meeting, complete with custom
responses for them to select. Once
complete, the host will be able to
see and share results. If you quickly
need to put something to a vote or
take the team's temperature on

Oftentimes, the person who
sets up and schedules a Zoom
meeting is not the person running
it. The usual fix for this is to simply
have the person who set up the
meeting assign the proper host
upon their arrival. While that works
just fine, you can eliminate the
busywork by granting scheduling
privileges to other users. It takes
a moment to set up, but if your
scheduler can set up meetings on
behalf of others, it will make them
run with fewer hitches once they
begin.

USE EXTRA ROOMS FOR
ADDED FUNCTIONALITY
Zoom also offers waiting rooms
and breakout rooms so you don't
have to have all meeting participants in the same virtual space at

JULY 2020 ■

once. The waiting room features
will hold all participants in a holding space (kind of like "The Good
Place" waiting room) until the host
calls them into the meeting. This is
a great tool if, say, you're conducting
a review and want to prepare before
inviting the person being reviewed
into the meeting. Breakout rooms
can be created once a meeting has
begun, for small group sessions or
other segmented assignments. They
can be assigned manually or randomly and left and joined multiple
times. Most of all, they allow your
virtual meeting space to function
a little more like a real-world one.

COMMUNICATE WITH
PARTICIPANTS FOR
SMOOTH SAILING
You can make yourself a true Zoom
super user, but that won't eliminate
frustration if you keep your prowess
to yourself. Not every user needs
to be familiar with every feature,
but the more you can do to make
things easy for people, the better
your meetings will be. As with IRL
gatherings, being a great host can
make all the difference in the world.
■

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