Virtual meetings are a standard feature of the business landscape. But working around the obstacles posed by distance requires careful planning and thoughtful execution. Here are some simple guidelines that we have seen make virtual meetings successful. By following them, one global service team was able to decrease by 20 percent the time it took to resolve customer issues.

1.  Be very interactive. Establishing camaraderie at a distance is difficult, yet it can be achieved if the meeting participants make an effort to engage with their colleagues from afar.

§          As attendees join the meeting, greet each one with a hearty hello and take a moment for small talk.

§          Take a personal interest in your teammates, just as you would if they worked in the office next door. E-mail or phone them outside of meetings to get to know them.

§          If your teammates hail from other parts of the world, ask neutral, friendly questions about customs, holidays, even politics. The attendees will exit the meeting better informed about one another.

§          Leave your phones off mute, especially in a small meeting. Interaction, asides, laughter and spontaneous questions establish context and rapport, and facilitate and open dialogue.

When one company we worked with adopted these simple techniques, camaraderie increased significantly, which in turn boosted collaboration, knowledge sharing and productivity. And attendance at virtual meetings soared to nearly 100 percent.

2. Use technology to enhance collaboration. Technology that enhances two-way communication and active collaboration can make virtual meetings almost like being there. Useful high-tech tools include virtual rooms for attendees, white-board functionality for note taking, voting tools for anonymous feedback, cameras so colleagues can see one another, collaborative online presentation capability, informal chat rooms for side discussions and the ability to raise your hand virtually and ask questions.

§          Investigate which tools will work for your team and train everyone in their use; many teams find it useful if one member is designated the technology champion.

§          Test the technology before every meeting, or request that everyone dial in 10 minutes early to iron out any last-minute problems.

§          Create a backup plan. For instance, send the presentations or documents by e-mail before the meeting, so if the technology does fail, the meeting can still be productive.

3. Reserve meetings for two-way communication. If one-way meetings are bad in person, they’re deadly over the phone, especially when participants are scattered across the globe and it’s the middle of the night for some.

§          If you need to get important information to everyone on the team, don’t use a virtual meeting. Try a Web cast or e-mail.

§          If you ask for input, and silence is the response, does it indicate agreement, disagreement, or simply a lack of engagement? In the absence of visual cues, the only way to be sure is to call for a vote, conduct a round-robin to solicit opinions, or take an anonymous poll.

4. Level the playing field. It is common in virtual meetings for some employees to participate while sitting together in a conference room, while others are alone in their offices or other locations. The individuals not in the room may feel excluded and wonder whether their input is equally valued.

§          Make it a rule: If anyone is alone during a virtual meeting, everyone is alone. Have each attendee dial in from her own office to level the playing field.

§          To be fair to attendees who are not in the same time zones as most of their colleagues, alternate meeting times so everyone is inconvenienced equally. It is tough to be the person on the other side of the world who always has to attend meetings in the middle of the night.

5. Establish a no e-mail or instant messaging policy. Just as it’s rude to have side conversations during a face-to-face meeting, it’s rude to converse on e-mail or instant messaging during virtual meetings. To encourage compliance, try what one team did: It decided that anyone who broke this rule would be assigned the next action item. This proved a highly effective deterrent!

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Karen Boda and Rebecca Hinkle are cofounders of Twinstar Consulting Llc., working with clients in the areas of global teams and talent management.

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