Create an agenda, invite the appropriate individuals and for the duration have a thoughtful conversation, make all the right decisions and walk away with a plan of action. But, nowhere in that plan, does it mention the technological glitches, individuals not fully paying attention or barking dogs.
The past two weeks, I have been on many conference calls that felt disorganized and to be frank, were not capitalizing on the invitee’s time. One meeting took 10 minutes to begin as we waited for participants to join and then the facilitator spent another 10 getting the late arrivals up to date. Another, the facilitator was late leaving us in musical purgatory. The final straw was a meeting where everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Children, dogs, cats, Darth Vader, and someone typing (using a hammer?). No one was surprised when I cried out BLACKOUT and reported I had filled up my conference call BINGO card. Not really, but you can picture it can’t you?
Over the weekend, I started to write down conference call behaviors that I want to hold myself accountable to and model in an attempt to change my engagement in conference calls.
My first draft was a tad verbose (see bottom of thread), but through the editing process I was able to create one liners:
How do I integrate these behaviors?
· If I aspire to live these behaviors, I need to make them a habit.
· In making them a habit, I need to model them in every meeting I attend.
· In modeling them, I need your help to tell when I am NOT modeling them.
And, as a team challenge, what if we agreed to these conference call commitments for meetings we schedule and meetings we are invited to attend? Fast forward two years out, would these changes today raise our street credibility? I believe they would. Anyone up to the Conference Call Commitment challenge?
Happy Thursday!
Conference Call Commitments
I will be present and actively engaged in the meetings I accept.
I will invite individuals who have a role to play.
I will make sure everyone invited is really necessary to the conversation and stop inviting folks as “optional”.
I will remember, the more people on the line, the more it costs the bank. Not to mention, the more people on the line means the less everyone pays attention.
I will start on time. And, if someone joins late, I will not catch him or her up. It wastes everyone else's time. I will encourage him or her to catch up with someone at the end of call to see what was missed or follow back up with the organizer after minutes have been distributed.
I will give the meeting agenda / goal within the first 120 seconds of the call.
I will put intentions in my meeting invites as the other people on the call should know why I called a meeting and want I need from them right away.
As the call organizer, I will ensure everyone is engaged. This means calling on participants if they are not speaking.
When using a screen sharing, I will make sure it works before the call starts. And, I will make sure I am sharing only the presentation, not your whole computer.
I will keep my sentences “shortish” and remember to pause regularly. If I do, I believe this will allow people to jump in or ask questions.
I will remember that unless I am giving a lecture, I should not speak for more than 75% of the call.
Five minutes before the end of the call, I will warn everyone that it's wrapping up, and ask if there are any questions. I will not let it run over if at all possible because I know it's disrespectful of other people's time.
I will have someone act as scribe and pass to them at the five minute marker to share next steps and action items. I will ask the scribe to send the minutes directly after the call so they remain top of mind to participants.
If I am joining a conference call, I will – at the first pause - introduce yourself.
I will plan my calls so that I am in a location where I can listen and engage. In the rare case that I am caught in a noisy location, I will let people know right away that I’ll be on mute unless I am speaking.
I will use the mute button strategically. And, if I am muted for 90% of the call, I will ask myself if I need to be on the call.
I will not be “that” person. You know the one that is not engaged, is checking emails, is responding to IMs and needs to ask for questions to be repeated. Instead, if I am not engaged – I will ask myself I need to be on the call. If I need to be on the call and am being distracted by a fire drill, I will consider one of the following: (1) Can a team member fill in for me? (2) Can the meeting be rescheduled? (3) Can I tell the fire drill originator that I need xx minutes before I can assist (4) Can I tell meeting coordinator, I need 5 – 10 minutes to address fire drill and return promptly.
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