“Teleconference Confusion.” Comic strip. Pleasetech. Web. http://www.pleasetech.com/business_process.htm.
When conducting a teleconference everyone in the meeting has the ability to be able to hear what is going on and to give their input, but, since the attendees can’t see each other, the key task for the leader is to create engagement between all of the participants so that they are actively engaged. What are some ways of engaging your team members when you are only able to hear their voices and their vocal intonations?
From: Bharat Vandra, PMP on Linkedin
Claire,
One thing that I do when I am leading a conference call is:
1. I put together an agenda with some level of detail and distribute it to all participants.
2. I make notes against the agenda of which participants will likely be more involved in or interested in which topics.
3. During the conference call I try to reach out and talk specifically to these individuals during the specific topics. For example, I will say “Joe, based on your involvement did that update cover what you need?”. I will also put together some questions to ask some of the participants on the call. This way I try to avoid the call being a lecture.
4. At the end I’ll open leave time to open up the call for any participant to bring up topics or ask questions. If it’s quiet then I’ll “pick on” some of the participants and ask “Mary…you good?” and “Jim…nothing from your side?”.
Seems silly but it makes the participants notice that everybody is involved and it’s not just an excercise in listening.
One other thing I do is that if I have individuals from my direct team on the call I’ll have them give updates or present an agenda item to spread the talking to others. It also raises the customer’s confidence level in my team’s resources with their involvement. Likewise, if there are any topics on the call that are specific to the customer I will include it and have them lead that part of the call.
By: virtualteambuilders on September 14, 2010
at 2:02 pm
From: Marshall Guillory on Linkedin
An often missed part of telcons are formal introductions, summarization of the agenda, and proper announcement and documentation of action items. The most important factors involved in your goal are the telcon leader his/her self. The person needs to be an inviting, interactive personality, with the leadership ability to draw people into the conversation as dictated by the agenda. No one enjoys listening to someone drone on for an hour…
By: virtualteambuilders on September 14, 2010
at 2:03 pm
From: Laurie Wheeler on Linkedin
Scripted presentations are sometimes necessary, especially for healthcare-related content, but sometimes add to that one-way “robot” type of presence. Having an operator or moderator available to field questions will allow the main presenter(s) time to have a glass of water, which is often needed. To add interactive elements, try accompanying your teleconference with a webconference (ie. WebEx/Live Meeting). This way, you can receive “chats’ from the audience as well as your colleagues, you can have your attendees answer polling questions and then choose if you want to display the results on the screen, and you can even have the audience provide feedback if you’re moving at a too fast/slow pace. It’s very cost-effective, especially if you have a smaller audience (less than 50). This scenario works well with both internal and external calls. If you expect a larger audience, utilizing a streamed webcast is your best bet. I’d be happy to consult with anyone on this discussion thread about the best platform for your initiative. Best of luck!
By: virtualteambuilders on September 14, 2010
at 2:04 pm