In our virtual Level 10 Meetings, we suspect team members are constantly multi-tasking, checking Slack, or reading emails because of slow response times and vacant stares. How do we enforce engagement in a remote environment without acting like a school principal?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Distraction in virtual meetings is an execution killer. If your team is multi-tasking during your weekly ninety-minute pulse, you are not actually running a Level 10 Meeting. You are running a low-value status update. To fix this, you do not need to micromanage. You need to establish and enforce clear ground rules rooted in trust.

First, establish a cameras-on rule. No exceptions. If you are in the meeting, you are visible. Second, implement a zero-device policy for everything except the meeting portal itself. If leaders are looking down or their eyes are darting across a second screen, they are not present. The facilitator must call this out immediately. A simple, direct check-in like: Are we all focused here? is usually enough to self-correct.

Third, make the meeting highly collaborative. If the facilitator is the only one talking, people will check out. Keep the pace fast. When going through IDS, call on different leaders to share their perspectives on the issue. If someone is consistently slow to respond, it is an issue that must be dropped to the list and discussed.

Ultimately, virtual engagement is about accountability. If your team cannot focus for ninety minutes a week to solve the company's biggest problems, they do not have the discipline required to scale the business.