As a leader-facilitator, welcoming spaces start with you. You need to enter the space with a sense of possibility so you can recognize it within co-participants. Even in virtual meeting environments, you can create a space of warmth and welcome. Use these practices as a check list to ensure a welcoming, community-focused, positive space.

1. Be yourself. Sometimes the online environment makes us feel nervous, act robotic or reserved. Allow yourself to emote. Share something personal to begin to flatten the hierarchy between you and the participants. Also, take time to remind yourself how you stay calm when things go wrong, when you’re triggered, when you’re over time, etc.

2. Use preferred pronouns. Make sure you type your name and preferred pronouns while video conferencing. Invite learners to do the same.

3. Invite every participant to speak and share their name. Let every voice be heard once at the start if you have a group of roughly 25 or fewer. If a larger group, invite each person to share their name, location and a detail about themselves in the chat box.

4. Explicitly welcome everyone. Acknowledge that partners, children, housemates, family, pets are present and welcome. Consider an icebreaker like, “Who or what is most likely to join or walk through this meeting from your space?” If participants feel they have distractions in the background, invite them to put up a background (on Zoom).

5. Remember physical needs. For each hour of online meeting provide at least 5-10 minutes of break time such as leading a stretching exercise or meditation. Encourage participants to take care of their own needs.

6. Acknowledge the technology and be patient. If possible, open the session 15 minutes early to allow for participants to test their own technology in advance. During the session, acknowledge that sometimes the technology will not work the way you wanted. Acknowledge the glitch in the moment, then shift gears to a back-up plan.

Want to create welcoming spaces in virtual meetings? We bet you’re already doing at least one of these things. See? You’ve.got.this. ❤️