Making the Most of Teleconference Calls

For most of my career, I’ve worked remotely. That is to say, I have had a home office for the past 20-plus years and worked both for established companies and agencies, as well as operating as an independent consultant. When friends hear about my set-up, they often express envy about the short commute, but always add something along the lines of, “I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t have the discipline.”
      In fact, my greatest challenge consistently has been associated not with self-discipline but with telephone technology, in particular, teleconference calls: not the content of the calls, but the general lack of protocol in most teleconference calls.
      The Wall Street Journal reported last month in an article about this topic that time spent in conference calls in the U.S. is “expected to grow 9.6% a year through 2017, according to Wainhouse Research, a Boston market-research firm… about 65% of all conferencing is still done by audio calls.”
      In that the expanding global economy continues to ensure that employees and outside contractors will increasingly be operating off-site, often at considerable distance from headquarters, the need for better teleconference technology and, especially, protocols for its use are imperative.
      Assuming that we have to continue to contend with unintelligible voices, people in the conference room who speak too loudly or not loudly enough, and other sins of teleconference calls, etc., let’s establish some ground rules to minimize the challenges and make the best of a less-than-perfect technology.

• First of all, we shouldn’t think of teleconference calls as “just another meeting.” When there are several people in a conference room and one or more people tied in via the speakerphone, it should be treated as a different kind of meeting versus a purely face-to-face meeting.
• All participants should approach teleconference calls with good manners, exhibiting the utmost patience with and consideration of others, especially the people who dial in remotely. That means staying on topic, not engaging in side conversations, and not interrupting others.
• Establish an agenda ahead of the meeting, including a purpose and desired outcomes. Agendas and goals should be clearer and more explicit than for face-to-face meetings. Distribute the agenda before the meeting.
• Also before the meeting, provide a list of attendees and their roles, spelling out who will be in the conference room and who will be dialing in remotely.
• If possible, limit the number of participants to no more than eight or nine. More than that and it tends to get chaotic.
• Be sensitive when one or more of the remote participants don’t know all the people in the room. When we are all accustomed to working together in an office space, we are used to people’s voices and their unique vocal mannerisms. Outsiders and newbies dialing in aren’t. So it’s imperative that people identify themselves each time they speak.
• Start the meeting with introductions, including name, role, and reason for participating in the meeting (if it’s not obvious). Participants who don't know each other should introduce themselves, explain their roles in the project at hand and explain what they hope to get out of the meeting.
• When latecomers enter the room, they should similarly introduce themselves. Likewise, people dialing in late should announce themselves.
• Appoint a moderator. If the group leader is dialing in remotely, the moderator should be in the conference room, though deferential to the leader. The moderator is responsible for maintaining order and discouraging side conversations. The moderator should also make sure that remote participants get a chance to offer their two cents to the discussion.
• People in the conference room who wish to speak should be recognized, by name, by the moderator. They should move closer to and speak directly into the microphone.
• Remote participants should keep their phones on mute until they speak. Too often, ambient noises like a barking dog come blasting into the conference room speaker.
• If you are on a line that has elevator music for the hold function or you don’t know, then don’t put your phone on hold.
• The moderator should notice when remote participants are silent for too much of the meeting and actively seek their opinions and insights on the topic being discussed. Being remote, it is sometimes difficult to cut in because the switch on the speakerphone tends to favor the voices in the room over those that are remote. The moderator should assume that silent remote participants have been unable to cut in.
• If someone in the room cracks a joke and the room dissolves into laughter, the moderator should let the others know who said what and repeat the joke, if necessary.
• Meeting participants in the room should be sensitive to the absence of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions for remote participants. If necessary, the speaker or the moderator should help remote participants follow along by indicating that a comment was delivered with a grin or a frown, for instance, thereby helping them gain better contextual meaning, such as intended irony.
• If someone in the room has to leave early, they should excuse themselves aloud so that those on the phone know that that person is no longer in the room. Similarly, if you're on the phone and have to leave early, say so before hanging up.
• Like any meeting, there should be a note-taker.
• As the meeting wraps up, the moderator should restate the conclusions and go-forward actions, along with assigned responsibilities and deadlines. If a follow-up meeting is necessary, take advantage of participants’ presence and set up the next meeting then and there.
• Before closing, the moderator should invite any final comments from the remote participants.
• The note-taker should type up and distribute the notes as soon as possible after the meeting, inviting participants to amend them as deemed necessary.

Bottom line: teleconference calls, like all meetings, should be seen as significant investments of people’s time and energy. Treat them as such by ensuring the full participation of all attendees, including those dialing in remotely. Getting into the habit of following these simple rules will assure that teleconference calls are well worth the investment.