One great question to warm up a virtual meeting is, ‘What are you enjoying about the lockdown?’.

For more ideas on introducing your online meeting read… Online meeting etiquette – Virtual facilitation #3

While that may seem paradoxical, there will be some things that people are benefiting from by staying at home whether they have thought about them yet or not.

Here’s a sampling of answers from one recent call:

• Vivid dreams
• My exercise routine
• Hearing the birds
• Home schooling with a 7-year-old (most of the time)
• Learning a new language
• I may never go on the tube again!
• Chocolate

It’s a question that works equally well whether you ask for spoken or written answers. It also focuses on the positive, putting people in a constructive frame of mind for when they get to the main purpose of the call.

What questions have made great starts to your calls?