When it costs a fortune to fly from St. Louis to Beijing...

When airport delays turn a day trip into a journey to nowhere...

When matrixed organizations have you reporting up, down and across your country...and throughout the world...

Your budget, your sanity, and your productivity are at risk.

MASTERING THE TELECONFERENCE

By Stephanie Nora White and Patricia Wiggenhorn

WORKING AROUND THE WORLD CLOCK
If it’s Monday morning somewhere, there must be a teleconference on tap for your project team. Leo of Hong Kong, Debby of Melbourne, Phillipe of Brussels, you in San Francisco (where it’s 3 am), and perhaps several other colleagues around the globe settle in with mobile device and caffeine in hand. Dress code is relative to time and locale.

Organizations the world over are bowing to economic challenges, slashing travel budgets and replacing face to face meetings with technology. Global calls are scheduled 24 X 7, with rotating deference given to various geographies—in an attempt to inconvenience the fewest number of participants. Calculating the world’s time zones has become a critical ritual for conference schedulers. How can you optimize your participation in a teleconference? Despite its increasing ubiquity, the teleconference is one of the most difficult mediums to master.

HEAVY LIFTING
Consider the basics of human communication—the visual, vocal, and verbal components. UCLA Professor Emeritus Albert Mehrabian, in an undisputed study, reported that 93% of communication is nonverbal. 55% of what audiences pay attention to is Visual (facial expression, eye contact, gestures, movement, smile, etc.); 38% is Vocal (your voice), and 7% is Verbal (the words you use.) Because most teleconferencing is done without video, participants are deprived of the visual signals which provide insight into the messages communicated. Participants often strain to capture the real meaning of a colleague’s remarks when they don’t have the benefit of the nonverbal clues that embellish a message. Simply stated, the teleconference require serious mental and physical work, no matter the reason for the call, nor the rank of the individuals involved, from the c-suite conducting quarterly earnings calls, to the business unit presidents’ report, to the regional sales team estimates, to the corporate town hall meeting.

But, it’s just a telephone, right? Nobody can see you, and nobody cares whether or not you’re eating your cereal, are curled up on a couch or are driving in rush hour traffic. What you’re doing isn’t nearly important as what you say, right? Wrong.

First, consider the language issue. While English may be the language of choice for business, it is not always your colleagues’ first, second, or even fourth language. You must be attentive to the special needs of everyone on the phone. When participating in a teleconference, you have to be even more "pulled together," mentally and physically as you would be if you were actually sitting around a conference table with the other participants.

Whether it is 3 am or 6 pm, your opportunity in a virtual meeting is to manage your brand, energize your colleagues, and ensure that your ideas are heard and acted upon.

SO, WHAT’S A VIRTUAL MEETING PARTICIPANT TO DO?

• Distribute an agenda at least 48 hours prior to the call, and assign a facilitator to manage the meeting. A skilled facilitator can bring efficiency to the call particularly when there are more than six people involved. The facilitator need not be the highest ranking person on the call, but one who excels at effectively managing individuals, content and time.
• Build breaks into the agenda so that participants know they will have some respite from intense listening. According to molecular biologist and author John Medina of Brain Rules, audiences ‘check out’ of any presentation every 10 minutes. Encourage people to stand up and stretch at prescribed times in the teleconference.
• Especially if you teleconference often from your home, ensure that you have the best phone / telecommunications technology available.
• If participating from the office, have an in-house IT professional on hand for the duration of the call.
• If you haven’t yet used your voice (because it’s 3 am in San Fran), speak a few sentences out loud before dialing into your call. And, remember that water is a better beverage choice than coffee to lubricate your vocal chords first thing in the morning.
• Take a few moments to shake out your body to get the adrenalin flowing.
• If you are participating from a remote location, use all of your nonverbal skills. Sit forward, physically engage—or, stand tall. Do not lean on the table. This usually results in hunched shoulders and ‘T-Rex" hand gestures. It also means that your diaphragm is bent to some degree, decreasing the flow of oxygen. This affects the voice and the non verbal and ultimately the effectiveness of your communication.
• Write out what you want to say during your report-out segment — or if you want to ask a question.
• If more than four people are participating, identify yourself each time you speak: "This is Chris in Chicago again."
• Speak slowly, distinctly, with energy and volume. Take the time to emphasize—and repeat—key phrases, something non-native speakers will appreciate.
• Be very specific when referencing handouts or visual aids: "Turn now to page 2 to see quarterly revenues. Look at the red bar graph on the right side." Also, provide pauses and allow participants to absorb any written materials.
• Poll participants to ensure there is buy-in and consensus.
• If using a teleconference service, take advantage of the moderator function—similar to that used in investor relations calls—where an operator instructs participants to press "1" if they want to be placed in queue to ask a question, or to press "#" to withdraw their question.
• If you are the facilitator, summarize the outcomes of the call, let your colleagues know when to expect minutes, and confirm the date and time of the next call.

THE TECHNOLOGY OF TELETALK
A few of the most common ways to connect the "spots"

"TAKE A DEEP BREATH" (The Skype Hello)
The least expensive option for bringing a global team together involves Skype™, a subscription connection service that is accessed via computer. Check it out at www.skype.com Skype can be fantastic, but it can also break down in weak signal areas and / or under the load of the millions of people using it at one time.

An advantage for some and an intimidation for other Skype users is the ability to videoconference. All you need is a computer with a built in camera or an inexpensive ancillary webcam to view your global colleagues.

SMILE: YOU’RE IN THE VIDEOCONFERENCING SUITE
The most expensive communication venue involves the high-tech videoconferencing suites that can be found in many organizations. There, teams assemble around a conference table and stare up at a screen where another site’s team is staring back. Such technology also enables a handoff among several locations, allowing those in the various videoconference suites to toggle around participating locations.

THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE ORIGINAL TELECONFERENCE
Often considered the most reliable technology for assembling two to 200 participants is the teleconference, which participants join via mobile or landline phones with varying levels of clarity. Typically, companies utilize a "conference bridge," phone number (usually the same one each time) with a facilitator and participant pin number used for participants to use when connecting.

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR TELETALK
Instead of viewing it as a "drag," think of each teleconference as an opportunity for you to communicate succinctly and strategically with your colleagues. Grab the "mic," speak strategically, and avoid toxic teleconferencing.