Using Box Canvas to get (a lot) more out of meetings
Two truths and lie:
- Meetings can be a boring waste of time.
- Meetings can be a priceless way to collaborate and harness creativity.
- There’s nothing that can be done to solve this age-old paradox.
Can you spot the lie? It’s #3.
Yes, meetings can be boring and even dreadful. But there’s a reason most organizations persist in having them. When done right, there’s simply no replacement for the collaborative magic that happens. Getting your team together in a collective space to swap ideas and give each other feedback is essential to virtually every area of business.
Of course, finding the right tools is table stakes to moving your meetings from #1 (tedious waste of time) to #2 (valuable collaboration).
Box Canvas is here to transform your meetings. This new tool is now included in your Box plan, setting you up to bring visual collaboration and whiteboarding to the Content Cloud today.
It’s not just about the tool, of course. The way you run your meetings is critical to their outcomes. Here are three ideas for how you can use Box Canvas to set the right tone, facilitate and capture idea-sharing, and organize thoughts for presentation.
Kick things off and loosen up with an icebreaker
Icebreakers are awesome for bringing a team together and welcoming newcomers. They’re a fun way to kick off a training, workshop, or even just an everyday meeting.
Speaking of “Two Truths and a Lie,” this is an actual icebreaker template available to you in the Canvas template library:
Each person participating in the icebreaker can simultaneously add a photo or icon, then update the three sticky notes in their corresponding color with two truths and one lie. Next, the team members take turns guessing. It’s not a new game, but this Box Canvas template provides a fun and visual way to kick off the meeting, speed the game along, and get your teams sharing and collaborating faster.
Organize an interactive brainstorming session
Box provides a number of tools with which to brainstorm brilliant ideas — enough tools for it to be handy, without overwhelming you with a crazy UI. And the tools you’ll see in Canvas should be fairly familiar:
- Sticky notes: Jot down ideas, collect and group them, then vote on them
- Shapes: Map out a process flow or create diagrams
- Text input: Add words and labels to your pictures and diagrams, anywhere in the Canvas
- Connectors: Connect ideas or combine them with shapes to map out flows
- Pen drawing: Freeform draw or scribble your thoughts onto the Canvas freely
One key feature of Canvas is that you can do all this in both a synchronous way (multiple team members working together in real time) or in an asynchronous way (team members pop in when they have time to add their thoughts and feedback). Your teams have the freedom to visually collaborate and whiteboard the way they want.
Hold a retrospective for a product release or customer meeting
Sometimes, innovation means looking backwards. Once your product is released, your sales campaign closes, or your quarter comes to and end, a retrospective is a smart way to log what worked and didn’t work — important learnings for next time.
In Box Canvas, retrospectives get a boost from premade Agile templates that let you get started quickly.
The “Good, Bad, Start, Stop Retrospective” template is one example. Choose this template, then customize it with shapes, text, and sticky notes. Click “Share,” then add team members you would like to collaborate with — either by email or a link you can share in your chat tool of choice.
Once multiple collaborators are in the Canvas at the same time, you’ll see their avatars at work. They can add sticky notes to the retrospective and use the comments area on the right to communicate in real time.
These are just three examples of how your team can use Box Canvas, but there are many more, and lots of templates to help you get started.
Box Canvas helps you harness the collaborative genius of your team — all of those good ideas that come from working together — and renders them concrete and actionable. Even better, Box Canvas enables you to capture everything in a digital format that’s easy to comment on and share. It’s a digital whiteboard for your best, team-sourced ideas.
Want more? Watch the Box Education video: Host visual collaboration sessions with Box Canvas