Have you ever struggled to hold your online group’s attention?
You’ve probably worked hard to get them on the video call – it’s not easy to convince a bunch of people to commit time to your thing.
But after a reasonable start, they begin to drift away… mics being muted, cameras being turned off, nothing appearing in the chat… and when you call for questions…. deathly silence.
The thing is, it’s much harder to hold people’s attention in an online environment than when they are in the room with you.
That’s down to evolution. Humans have evolved to:
- Pay attention to things that are physically close to them (proximity bias)
- Prioritise things that are big over smaller ones. On the computer screen, you’re pretty small!
- Have physical needs that can’t be met while glued to a screen.
So, what can you do to hold your online group’s attention?
Here’s my biggest tip: add stripes!
Instead of spending a long time talking at your group, then calling for questions, vary the type of activity at least every five to ten minutes.
My friend Ben Mosior came up with the ‘stripes’ metaphor, by the way: narrow stripes of colour representing different activities.
In our Online Events That Connect model, the suggested stripes include:
- short content presentations
- short, highly-focussed breakout discussions
- lively whole-group debriefs
- warm-ups and energisers
- screen breaks, in which everyone is invited to get up and move about – perhaps while thinking about something specific.
There are plenty of other options that can work well (please comment below with your ideas).
The point is to vary the type of activity frequently.
In doing this, you’re working with evolution rather than against it. Humans have evolved to pay extra attention when things change, rather than stay the same. And they’re attracted to other humans, to social interactions.
Of course, this requires more planning than a 45-minute talk. It requires facilitation skill, and the ability to use tools such as breakout rooms. But it really isn’t rocket science.
- If you’re interested in participative online workshops join me for Buzzing Online Workshops For Change-Makers, a live-online experience bringing together some of our key insights from the last couple of years. It’s going to be buzzing 🙂