"We’re going to wait five minutes for everyone to join"

Often among the first words uttered by an online meeting host, this practice dishonors the time of those who joined on time and does nothing to establish a culture of punctuality for meetings.

At the same time, there are legitimate reasons why an individual may be late to a Zoom meeting (or an in-person one).

To make the most of those inevitable few minutes when you’re waiting for stragglers, one idea is to start with brief tone-setting exercises. For example, ask everyone to write down their intention or objective for the meeting.