Explore How Telephone Conference Calls Can Increase Your Decision Making EfficiencyStep into the life of any Project Manager, and you will realize the kind of importance telephone conference calls have in the world of business. Conference call services are ubiquitous, and you will see almost all business organizations using telephone conference calls extensively to conduct business. However, a lot many of us tend to miss out on the utility of a conference call service, primarily because we do not adhere to a certain set of basic rules. Follow these basic rules and realize the full potential of a conference call service. First things first- if you are the convener, set a goal, and jot down the agenda. The golden rule of long distance conferencing is focus- you loose focus of the discussion and you loose the concentration and attention of the team members. Since members of a long distance conferencing are not physically present in a given room, there are chances that they may get distracted if the conference looses its focus. To ensure that you have the complete concentration of all your team members, make sure you and they know what they are going to discuss about. Plan out- Make sure you plan out your details, and you should inform all your team members much in advance. If you have one out of five members missing, it is a loss of time for you as well as the entire team. Also, make sure that none of the team members come without any background knowledge of the agenda that you are planning to discuss. Have a moderator. Having a moderator, a moderator who understands viewpoints of all the team members is extremely important. If you are subscribed to conference calling service and talking to, let's say five members, chances are that you need to convince someone about something they do not want to be. Things may get unruly, or unproductive if it is a free-for-all. With a neutral moderator in place, you can increase the probability of success of your conference. Use proven solutions and infrastructure: Clarity is voice is important. If you have subscribed to one of those free or unbelievably cheap conference calls, most of your telephone conferences must be wastage of time- for you may not be clearly audible to your team members or vice versa. So, get a reliable infrastructure, and more important a conference room that is free of any noise pollution. Make sure you do not have any other electronic device running, as that may create impedance and voice distortion. There are solutions that can offer you affordable conference calls, and affordable conference calls are not expensive. Terminate the conference when the goal is not being achieved. There are situations where there are differences in opinions, and it may well happen in a telephone conference too. If you feel that the discussion is not leading to a solution, terminate it there and meet again, later. Or, if you feel the team lacks some knowledge and that is stopping the discussion from reaching its goal, terminate and meet again. Despite cheap conference calls, and time is precious for you as well as your team members. |