Running Teleconferences

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A good teleconference chair brings everyone together.

Have you ever attended a teleconference that was frustrating and unproductive? You probably know how many things can go wrong – the technology is confusing or inadequate, there are too many people on the call, you don't know who else is on the phone, mute buttons click on and off, new people enter the call and interrupt the meeting, and people talk over one another.

With all this confusion, there's often a lack of clarity and closure on any issue, all of which reduces the effectiveness of this potentially invaluable – travel-time- and environment-saving – communications tool.

In a face-to-face meeting, we often rely on "body language" and other visual tools to help us manage participants. But these don't exist in a teleconference, so it can be easy for the chair to seem disorganized and lose control, or otherwise cause the experience to be less than satisfactory. This is irritating for all involved, and it's clearly frustrating when these failures mean that the meeting fails to achieve its objectives. So, what can you do to ensure that the teleconferences you manage are productive and effective?

Our article on Running Effective Meetings   gives simple rules and skills for running an in-person meeting. You'll need the same skills to run a teleconference, but you may have to emphasize or slightly change some areas.

Making the Teleconference Effective

When you set up a teleconference, follow two general rules:

1. Keep the meeting short – The shorter the meeting, the better. Brief, energetic meetings tend to be more productive and less costly than longer ones. Also, people attend them more enthusiastically and evaluate them more highly.

   As well as this, your agenda should be relevant and meaningful. Make sure you can reasonably address the intended purpose in the given time frame, and specifically define your expectations. This will increase the chances of a successful meeting.

2. Limit the number of attendees – Keep your teleconferences to the minimum number of participants that you absolutely need. If there are too many people on the call, you won't make the best use of everyone's time. While you may routinely involve all team members in regular meetings, for teleconferences, invite only those who are truly necessary to achieve the meeting's goal.

   There may be people who want to simply listen in on a meeting to know what's happening. However, if they can't add to the process and they don't actively participate, consider asking them to read minutes or a transcript afterwards, rather than "attend." (You can point out that this will typically take much less time!)

We'll now look at some details you need to plan for your teleconference.

Before the Teleconference

Consider these areas before your teleconference begins:

• Scheduling – Unlike face-to-face meetings, your teleconference participants may be in different time zones. Check for this when you schedule the meeting (www.timeanddate.com has some very useful features here.)
• Agenda – Share your agenda in advance. This is even more crucial for teleconferences than for in-person meetings. Allow plenty of time for participants to respond if they'd like to change any agenda items.
• Technical directions – Clearly communicate to all participants how to access the teleconference. Also, set up and test equipment well in advance. And make a backup plan for technical problems.
• Meeting protocols and rules – For teleconferencing, this is a big issue. Communicate to each attendee your policies on the following:
  • Introductions – You may simply have all participants give their names, or you may need to introduce people: your attendees really want to know who else is on the call! You might also add some sort of introductory remarks to help everyone focus on the meeting.
  • "Latecomers" – Insist on promptness, and don't spend any time reviewing topics if someone "arrives" late. Teleconference systems often include an announcement of who has just joined the meeting, and this can be extremely disruptive if people are late. In some situations (for example, where issues being discussed aren't confidential), consider turning this off, if you can.
  • Phone "mute" button – Turning on and off a mute button can disrupt the meeting. But if participants have something else going on in their offices, it's important for them to use the mute button so others don't hear it. Where they have one, ask people to use the mute button on their phones instead, or get people to mute and "unmute" their phones at the same time.
  • Multitasking by participants – Ask people to avoid doing other things during the meeting. You can't control their behavior, since you're not in the room with them, but a teleconference requires solid focus. Try to structure the meeting tightly, so participants keep their attention on the call and don't start checking emails or doing other work. If you're teleconferencing between teams, with several people on one phone, it may be best to set up a special room with the teleconferencing equipment. This ensures that the team has quiet surroundings and few distractions.
  • Structure for communicating – Do you allow each team member a certain amount of time to speak? Is there a sequence of speakers, and then an open discussion – or is the discussion open at all times? How will people know it's OK for them to speak? Inform participants of the structure and process in advance.

During the Teleconference

Before looking at specific suggestions, let's consider the personality of the chair or moderator. The best teleconference meeting managers are those with...