Strategies for implementing small-group breakouts in virtual meetings

Allowing participants of a meeting to break out into small groups can help more team members share their thoughts and ideas, allowing conversations to go deeper.

Implementing small-group breakout conversations in virtual meetings reduces the number of participants within discussions, lowering the perceived risk for sharing and encouraging conversations to go deeper. This strategy can be used with students as well as educators and other adult staff in order to foster effective conversations.

Use this in order to…

• Ensure equitable and inclusive participation, particularly from those who may not often speak up in large groups.

• Support participants with processing through group discussion.

• Encourage vulnerability and courageous conversations.

Key Components

• After designing your agenda, consider the various points in which time for processing, sharing, or discussion can be helpful. Determine where breakouts might strategically fit into your meetings.

• Choose the size and composition of each group, being intentional about group dynamics to optimize the conversations.

• Before launching breakout groups, share your intended goal for the discussion, allotted time, and output expectations. If helpful, have each group share out a summary or takeaways from their discussion.

Considerations for Remote Implementation

• Practice using and troubleshooting your technology tools. Zoom breakout rooms can be tricky, and there are several settings you can change. Figure out what works best for your team.

• Be clear about processes and time. Zoom allows you to broadcast messages, but it’s best to align on your process (including time) before breaking out. Provide time warnings as needed and use chat functions for your prompts to send participants a visual indicator.

• Self-selecting groups can be complicated. If it would be helpful to have participants select a group based on interest, create a shared document where they can sign up for a group. The host will have to then create the groups in the moment.

The Remote DEI Collective was a collaborative group led by The Learning Accelerator (TLA), and brought together participants from remote organizations to address the challenges of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in remote environments. This strategy has been adapted from the Remote DEI Collective’s toolkit, which was built to offer resources to improve remote culture and practices, in order to better suit leaders and educators working for schools that offer virtual and hybrid learning options to students.