We’ve all been there—sat in meetings where it appears too hard to grasp an idea being presented from one speaker to the other. Multiple reports have shown that such ineffective meetings are common now, with managers and employees terming them as a waste of time.
But what if events and team meetings were not like this?
The introduction of whiteboard technology now presents a new way to approach meetings with a key focus on team collaboration and communication. This technique lets you approach team meetings from a visual brainstorming perspective on a physical or virtual whiteboard.
Whiteboarding has the power to transform your team meetings in many ways. The most important one is that it lowers the barrier of static discussions with static tools to dynamic integrated experiences that can indeed change the way your team:
- Deals with challenges
- Comes up with ideas
- Remote cooperation over long distances.
In this blog, we look at five ideas for using whiteboard technology to transform team meetings.
1. Uniting Teams via Cross-Functional Collaboration
It’s funny that, in an organization, most departments operate more like independent islands that rarely communicate or cooperate well with each other. The monument of isolation is the sole cause of this dysfunctional collaboration, which tends to kill innovation and cause inefficiencies.
Whiteboard technology connects dissimilar teams by creating a shared, interactive environment where the teams can ultimately cooperate. You can leverage whiteboard for real-time collaboration and reshape how your teams brainstorm, strategize, and visualize ideas.
When everyone can see each other’s thoughts and join in, the misunderstandings decrease, and mutual respect increases. With the implementation of whiteboard technology for your teams, you can change cross-functional cooperation from a “special occasion” to a routine habit.
2. Make Brainstorming More Visual and Interactive
A conventional brainstorming session consists of either a long debate or various sticky notes on a table. While this might work for a while, it can be unpredictable and uninviting. Whiteboard technology creates diverse brainstorming events that use color and interactivity instead.
Envision a digital whiteboard where every team member would be able to express their ideas at the same time! Stickies, drawing, and annotation tools lead to many thoughts being sketched out, linked, and organized at the same time, even if the participants are not physically present.
Focusing on visualization instead of just verbal communication makes the entire process more transparent and encourages creativity. When complicated ideas are graphically or visually represented, it is easier to understand them rather than just talking about them.
3. Turning Project Tracking into a Real Experience
Managing a project using spreadsheets with updates is a task-reproving phenomenon that many struggle to deal with. Whiteboard technology robs project management of the monotony and turns it into a dynamically transparent flow of work.
First, you’ll have a digital whiteboard platform in place to project track by interactively shifting tasks from “To Do” to “In Progress” to “Done.” Besides, instant comments, files, and updates make it easy for everyone to be on the same page regarding project developments.
What distinguishes digital whiteboards is the historical tracking feature. Unlike physical whiteboards, which cannot be traced back, digital whiteboards record every action. Need to go back and see how an idea evolved? It is all just a few clicks away.
4. Gamify Learning and Training
Most team training sessions are boring and not memorable for some members if not all. In most cases, a trainer speaks, and the attendees either listen or pretend to, and in a few days, they can’t remember the content.
However, there’s a way you can achieve an all-in experience that’s always exciting by infusing whiteboard technology into your routine team training or learning sessions. The technology aims to bring the missing fun part that adds interactivity to make the entire experience unforgettable.
For instance, instructors can interactively use digital whiteboards to create questions and quizzes, solve problems in teams, or organize group learning paths.
By engaging and visually representing the knowledge, participants tend to stick with the material and feel like they are part of the process. Aside from that, the gamified elements stir people’s competitive and cooperative sides, thereby keeping everyone excited and involved.
5. Developing Emotional Intelligence and Team Collaboration
Most of the time, tools intended to increase productivity focus on efficiency only. However, the human factor of collaboration is also something to consider. Using whiteboards, strategies such as relationship-building may be infused into the team environment.
For instance, the group can make a persona, establish values, and review visions on whiteboards. These activities help the team members realize each other’s working styles, communication approaches, and personal strengths.
Moreover, teams can develop visual displays of shared goals, individual dreams, and growth possibilities. The shared video story becomes more of a bonding experience than traditional activities, which may have more romantic and entertaining elements.
Whiteboard Technology is the Future of Meetings
Whiteboard technology is not merely a digital upgrade; it alters how teams communicate and cooperate. This technology has, alongside visual and interactive technologies, laterally opened doors to creativity, efficiency, and connection.
Team meetings can now include brainstorming sessions that inspire innovation, project tracking that leads the whole team in one direction, or whiteboards that seamlessly enable team meetings. The dull and meaningless periods of gathering and ineffective meetings are now history. A digital whiteboard is the ultimate tool for transforming your team meetings into a digitally powered, fun learning environment.