Ten Tips to Tune Up Your Teleconferences

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  steve.chihos@...04/10/07 Report as spam
  1

  Nice ideas, but...

  1. "Turning off mute" is a nice idea, but as my kids say "way not practical"... especially when there are more than a couple of locations. Instead of trying to shame them into compliance (listen for shuffling papers?), we use the same ground rule in virtual meetings that applies to face-to-face meetings: "BE HERE" - meaning we expect everyone to show up, listen, and participate. Leave the email, Blackberry, etc. alone and we'll all get done with the work of the meeting quicker and more effectively. C'mon, do we really need to ask you to sit up straight and pay attention?
  
  2. You cover some "before" and "during" tips, but unless I missed it, you forgot the important "after" activities of distributing action items, sharing notes, doing follow-ups, verifying agenda items and scheduling for related meetings, etc. These are especially critical if you meet more than once...
  
  3. Re: "Roll out the whiteboard": I highly recommend you don't bother writing anything on a "virtual whiteboard" that can be typed as clear text in a chat or log. In cases where there are significant decisions, data sharing, careful wording of messages, etc., it's even better to use a shared document that serves as a record. Virtual whiteboards are great for picture, process flows, etc, but sloppy handwriting is even harder to read when sent electronically or displayed on a tiny window.
  -Steve

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  ramamurthi04/13/07 Report as spam
  2

  Teleconfirances

  A very practical advices that can be implemented from tomorrow

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  ftkaplan@...04/15/07 Report as spam
  3

  Involvement / courtesy

  I agree with most the points the author makes.
  Conference calls can save travel time, but not always save time. Make sure the people on the conference call, need to be on the conference call. If notes are prepared after the call some of the people that are "information only" would not need to be online.
  
  Try to schedule people to join the conference call when their agenda item might "be up". This shows my respect for their time, and participation.

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  Cornelia01@...07/25/07 Report as spam
  4

  Meeting Tips

  Another tip, address questions to people by name, e.g. Mary, what are your thoughts...keeps people engaged when they know they may be called upon to speak. Head the meeting, but use presentors who have some passion about topics. Be more specific than goals...try results. At the end of this meeting we will have made the following decisions (always keeps people engaged) At the end of this meeting we will understand XYZ so that we can do ABC...

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  jeff317@...08/01/07 Report as spam
  5

  teleconferences

  Keep them short. Few people can retain verbal information at the same level as written (plus nothing to review), so provide after meeting notes. Be focussed on the purpose of the meeting and exactly what it will cover, avoud or short-circuit rambling visits to off-topic areas.
  Have each person speaking first say their name and have "the floor"; speaking over one another wastes time as both people have to repeat their points.

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  marannatarajan@...11/13/07 Report as spam
  6

  RE: Ten Tips to Tune Up Your Teleconferences

  This is some of the best practices collated which i have observed in a well conducted TeleConference call. It worth studying