Online board meetings are an excellent source of effective decision-making. If they're not efficiently run, they can cause boredom and lower participation. Follow these simple steps to get your virtual meetings going and virtual platforms enhancing M&A communication boost productivity.

The agenda should be shared prior to the meeting with all participants to ensure that everyone is aware of the topics to be discussed. Consider asking your group to tune in from an area that is quiet and free from distractions. Ask participants to make use of the "raise hand function" of your virtual meeting software when they are able to speak to avoid over-talking or missing the point.

Keep the discussion focused on the most important issues by establishing a set maximum speaking time for each item. This allows everyone to participate and prevents discussions from going off-topic or distracting other participants. Encourage your board members to turn off their microphones when they're not speaking to silence background noises such as kids, pets and coworkers.

The last thing to do is end the meeting on time. This is a sign of respect for the time and effort of your fellow board members. It is also a good practice to distribute the minutes quickly after the meeting is over. Additionally, it helps to streamline the process for recording and distribution of meeting minutes using the built-in capabilities, such as inline task delegation.

By doing this, you can ensure that everyone on the board is on the same page as to what transpired at the meeting and what is required to be done in between meetings.