how to Better Conference Calls

How can I manage people I cannot see?

That’s a question I get from a good number of managers who work with remote staff and freelancers and communicate with them via Skype, Google Hangouts, email, online chats and, yes, the telephone.
It’s clear from what the managers ask that despite the innovations in communication technology, it remains challenging to communicate effectively with people who work in another location.
I remember the challenge well. In my first assigning desk job at The Philadelphia Inquirer, I coordinated the paper’s coverage of New Jersey, and learned a lot about casino gambling, cranberry bogs, Superfund toxic waste sites and corrupt politicians. Because I was in Philadelphia and most of my staff worked in bureaus located in Trenton and points south, I also learned a lot about managing by telephone.
In the years since (and there have been quite a few), my use of the telephone often has  involved gathering groups of people for conference calls. Some were called to make announcements or share information. Others provided a way to brainstorm ideas or discuss approaches to a problem. Some were held monthly, weekly or even daily so that members of my decentralized staff could brief each other and plan together. And some were called to deal with specific, one-time issues.
Recently I heard from a manager who asked for tips on facilitating an effective conference call. Acknowledging that this is an art, not a science, and that you should tailor your individual approach to the unique needs and qualities of your group, I offer these ideas. I hope they’re helpful.
1. Know the participants. The first step in making a successful conference call takes place long before anyone dials in. You need to know the participants — and they need to know you. So visit your remote locations as often as possible. Be able to put faces with the voices. (I worked with two freelance stringers in Jersey for four years and never met them in person.) You may not be able to visit your bureau staff and freelancers every week, or even every month, so when you can, make the visit count — address work issues that let each of you see the other in action.
2. Set a goal. Even if the call is held every week to discuss issues like the upcoming Sunday edition, your website’s metrics or a long-term project’s progress, establish a clear goal for each call. If all you want to do is make sure everyone knows what their colleagues are working on, you can tell everyone to submit something in writing and dump a meeting. But if you want to identify the week’s best story and share ideas for its presentation, make sure everyone on the call knows that in advance — and helps make it happen. Remember that if you invite me to a call, I need to understand why I’m there and what I am expected to contribute to its success. That begins when I understand your goal. (And be realistic. You can’t create a social media strategy in one 60-minute call. But you might agree upon a process and assign tasks to those involved in the project. That’s progress.)
3. Prepare an agenda. And share it. Before the call, send an email to the participants  that includes the goal for the call and any specific discussion points. Telling me beforehand what we’re going to discuss gives me a chance to think about the issue and what I might contribute. If I’m introverted, you've just helped me a lot. Also, include in the email the names of those who will be on the call. It will help me picture who’s sitting around this virtual conference table.
4. Start (and end) on time. If it’s difficult to run an in-person meeting when folks are arriving at all times, it’s even more difficult when they are entering a conference call after it’s begun. If the call is to start at 2 p.m., start it at 2 p.m. and follow up with those who chronically arrive late. And for your part, make sure to end the call when you said it would end.
5. Take roll. At the beginning of a call, I like the participants on the call to announce their presence. This accomplishes two things: it helps the participants picture who’s sitting around the virtual conference table; and it gives me a chance to make a checklist of who’s on the call — so I can make sure everyone's voice is heard.
6. Set expectations for participation. Call on people. Conference calls, like all meetings, allow you to send a variety of messages, like: “We need the ideas of everyone in this organization.” “The loudest voices will not have an advantage.” “We will treat everyone’s ideas with respect.”
Too many conference calls, like too many in-person meetings, violate these principles, and the organization is poorer for it. As facilitator, keep track of who’s doing the talking and ask those who are quiet what they’re thinking. If someone is about to talk for the 26th time, politely say, “Before you speak, William, why don’t we hear from Susan?” Don't forget, this is your call.
And be careful about discouraging participation with your opinions — your words carry a lot of weight. Again, remember that the meeting is yours. You can speak whenever you want. So let others go first.
7. Stay on track. Keep your eye on your goal and the conversation on point. When a discussion designed to surface ideas for improving deadline performance wanders into an argument about who did what on one night in October, reign things in. Repeat the goal and summarize the group’s progress so far. Then let the discussion resume.
17 Tips For More Productive Conference Calls – New Bonus Tips

1.    Circulate an Agenda.  Don’t do a conference call without first circulating an agenda to all involved parties. An agenda helps to structure the conference and helps members to prepare by providing in advance the type of information they will need in order to effectively participate in the discussion.

2.    Get familiar with each other. Have everyone in attendance introduce him or herself up front. In fact, make that the first thing on your agenda. It is important for people who don’t know each other’s voices especially well to become familiar as quickly as possible.
 
3.    Have conference calls only when you need to. Many are unnecessary and could be avoided with either a one-on-one call or a focused e-mail exchange. Group calls should only be made when either in-depth dialogue or brainstorming is required.

4.    Establish meeting timing. This includes when the meeting will begin, break and end ahead of time. Provide a time structure, which all participants must adhere to and matters will flow smoothly.

5.    Focus on the conference. Limit “electronic grazing” to during the conference call. Set it up like they did in the old frontier days at the saloon with all who enter checking their guns at the door!! The equipment is different; phones and laptops to be exact, but the attitude is the same. No multi tasking while the meeting is in session. This means no email, no phone calls and this means you! Attending the meeting is like being pregnant; one either is or one isn’t present at the meeting. If an emergency occurs and a call needs to be made, then the person should leave the room to make the call and not tie up the meeting.

6.    Schedule guests and make the best use of everyone’s time. Use your agenda to indicate when people will be needed to present their arguments and avoid the traffic jam of having thirty people in a room for three hours, twenty of whom will have nothing at all to do or say until the last 15 minutes of the meeting. Tick off items on the agenda as they are covered.

7.    Delegate roles. Don’t wear too many hats at your own meeting. Employ someone to keep track of the time so that you as the leader are free to focus on the matters presented in the agenda and keep the meeting rolling along at an even pace.

8.    Stay focused on your time element and subject matter. Not all issues require the same amount of time to settle and any issue that can be resolved offline or does not require the input of the majority of the group should be dismissed as quickly as possible and ticked off the mighty agenda.

9.    Meetings won’t run themselves. Be aware of which tips work best for you and remain consistent in their use. Meetings have never been able to run themselves, and you as the leader, must always think things out thoroughly so that people attending do not feel they are wasting their time. After all, that is the one commodity that we never seem to have enough of and that waits for no one, as the old saying goes.

10.    Stick to the point. Keep conference calls short and very sweet. This way, each participant knows what to expect, more or less, in terms of why they are there and what they are supposed to do. There is nothing more boring than a rambling speaker and nothing that will lose a listening audience more quickly, except maybe a sudden office fire.

11.    Get through the agenda first. Consider dealing with any matters that are not

on the agenda last even if they are brought up at the beginning of the conference. This prevents sidetracking and losing precious time in covering the more pertinent issues at hand.

12.    Invite only the people that need to be on the conference. Don’t call bosses and technical experts to attend the conference unless you know in advance that their advice will be needed. Regardless of the outcome of the conference, they will definitely owe you one and be eternally grateful.

13.    Limit the Chaos. Limit the number of people on the conference call to four or at most five. Chaos is sure to follow if there are too many opinions circulating at the same time. Problems are likely to occur because the more opinions, the harder it becomes to keep track of who is speaking and a common reaction is to go on automatic pilot and “leave the meeting in your mind.”

14.    Wait your turn to speak. Try not to interrupt when others are speaking and wait for the appropriate moment to jump in. One has to listen and concentrate much more acutely over the phone than is necessary in person.

15.    Summarize and follow up on meeting proceedings. This can either be done by you or by a project manager, if one has been so assigned. Take a few minutes at the end of the conference to review any major new projects that were generated in the meeting and email the list of resolutions to all participants. Also, take a minute to identify those issues or questions that must be explored further. Don’t forget to thank everyone for his or her participation and say goodbye.

16.    Practice makes perfect. Familiarize yourself with the conference call service before you use it.  You’re going to want to know how to use the conference call service so that you can use your mute functions and any of the moderator controls.  You should be able to call the conference company and get a quick overview of the different commands that you can use.

17.    Start the conference on time.  You’ve sent out a lot of invitations that have a specific date and time provided to the other participants.  Start at the right time so that the conference will begin for those who showed up at the right time. Participants who are late will just have to miss the introduction.
How to Conduct Better Conference Calls
Conference calls are notoriously awkward, full of goofs and potentially unproductive, but they’re also a vital component of company communication both internally and externally. When everyone can’t be in the same room, you need a tool to bring them together for discussions and collaboration.
However, attendees on your conference calls aren’t paying attention, and they may even be focusing their attention on other work. Hiding behind the facelessness of audio conferencing, attendees can multitask or mentally check out without ever being seen—missing out on the important message you’re delivering and not offering new ideas to the conversation.

So how do you conduct better conference calls? Here are three ways you can do less and get more out of your calls:

1. Meet less frequently. Our work culture often confuses time and meetings with productivity. Holding lots of conference calls is an easy way to “show your work” as proof of progress and time well spent. However, conference calls that are too frequent are one of the key causes of your attention deficit. Instead, save meetings for when you have completely new, urgent information to share or when you need participation and feedback from others. Save the recaps, alignment and previews for emails.
2. Meet with less people. Only the key players involved in your project or message should be invited to your conference calls. Anyone that’s only loosely affiliated will zone out and feel that their time is wasted, so just include them on your meeting recap emails. Additionally, this will help those actively participating feel more comfortable asking questions and chasing new ideas without worrying about taking up too much time.
3. Limit meetings to less topics. Conference calls are already full of lost and confused attendees between messy dialogues, unclear agendas and repetitive questions (and add to that the nuances of joining and staying connected for mobile callers). Don’t add to the confusion with too many topics of discussion. And if you can say it in less words, do it. Put your stats and facts on paper or slideshows, send them prior to the meeting and resist the urge to read through them word for word.
Sometimes it’s not you, though. Sometimes it’s your technology that holds you back from productive calls.

Six Tips for Better Conference Call Etiquette

1.    Call in a few minutes early, just as you would get to the meeting room a few minutes early if the meeting were in person.
2.    Introduce yourself when you dial in. You can use just your first name if you know everyone, but if the call includes people you don't interact with often, give your full name and mention your department and title.
3.    Wait a second after someone else finishes talking before jumping in. This small pause helps prevent you from talking over the other person. Hopefully, the call moderator will notice if multiple people are trying to jump in simultaneously and will call on people to speak in sequence. If that doesn't happen, be patient, but don't give up.
4.    When you do get the chance to speak, announce your name again before asking your question or making your comment. If you do this, others may follow suit. This helps keep the call on track.
5.    Mute your phone when you're not talking to keep background noise (people entering your office, dogs barking if you're working at home) from disrupting the call. Do your best to call from a quiet place, which is probably not your local coffee shop.
6.    Pay attention to what is happening on the call—being on a conference call is not the time to check your email. No matter how boring the conversation may be, do your best to stay engaged.