Feeling overwhelmed? Try this little experiment—turn off your computer volume. Your psyche is constantly bombarded with all the little clicks and dings your computer makes when it performs the smallest operation—simply decide you don’t need it!You only need the volume turned up if you’re watching a file with sound, such as a video.You will be completely amazed at how much more calmness you exude and how much peace of mind you feel if you try this!Encourage your co-workers to turn off their computer volume as well, to minimize the overall background noise in your office.This is especially helpful if you work in an open-space office with several cubicles.To further reduce noise in your life, trying driving with your radio off.You don’t have to be the receptor for all the bad news in the world.That doesn’t mean you should be an uncaring person, but there’s nothing you can do about a murder that took place yesterday in a different state.It’s important to keep abreast of news—but you’d be surprised at how little news you need to keep abreast.Keep the radio on for only 10 minutes of your drive, or listen to it every other day.Better yet, put in your favorite CD.Or drive in silence and spend some time thinking some positive thoughts—like a recent vacation.Remember the saying, “silence is golden.”
Your marketing team is based in Chicago, and you work from your home office in Denver, and the salespeople work from remote field sites all over the globe.You need to connect voice-to-voice to discuss next quarter’s sales efforts and don’t have the budget to travel to a central location.It takes a great deal of energy attempting to connect with each person individually.Teleconference, to the rescue!
Teleconferences can be a great way to connect virtual teams from around the world.They are less expensive than face-to-face meetings, often take less time, and allow teams to communicate more informally, ask questions, and solve problems better than through email.
Holding one should be a no-brainer.What can be so hard about a group of people talking on the phone?All you have to do is connect everyone on the phone and make decisions as if you were in person, right?That’s exactly the dilemma: this is NOT your normal phone call.A teleconference is a meeting.To pull it off, you’ll have to do more than pick up the phone.You’ll have to prepare for it in the same way you would a meeting, with a few extra details.It’s especially complex if some participants are meeting face-to-face while others are remote.
To make sure your next teleconference is successful and the least energy-draining as possible, follow these guidelines:
·Since you’re coordinating the calendars of several busy people, scheduling a teleconference can take many days.Give yourself at least one week before the desired meeting day to find a time convenient for all.
·A teleconference can become unmanageable with more than ten people, so try to limit the number of participants to those whose presence is truly required.Include people who can make a significant contribution to the discussion, and copy people “who need to know what’s happening” on the minutes following the call.
·One week prior to the meeting, solicit input for items to add to the agenda.Send out a detailed meeting agenda at least two days prior to the call, specifying the meeting objective and decisions to be made.Don’t forget to send all documents, notes, and pre-work or reading required prior to the call.Keep the process simple and the schedule short.Most people can’t pay attention while listening and looking out into space for more than about thirty minutes.If you have more issues than time, plan several teleconferences to discuss different goals.
·Include the teleconference phone number and PIN number with the messages one week before, two days before, and the day of the meeting.
·Test out the teleconferencing equipment days prior to the actual meeting.Conduct a few trial runs with the other locations, to ensure you can hear them and they you.Surprises are not fun on the day of the meeting and frustrated participants have to sit around while you troubleshoot the equipment.
·The person who calls the meeting can act as the “voice traffic controller,” or another person may be appointed.The facilitator is responsible for keeping the meeting moving and on track.The facilitator notes the topic to be discussed based upon the timed agenda and asks specific people to report out.
·Before you speak, remember some people may not recognize your voice.Even if you think “everyone knows me,” always begin with “This is Laura,” and then speak.When you pick up the conversation again, repeat, “This is Laura again.”
·Don’t be afraid of silence.Because the phone is devoid of facial expressions, you can’t always read emotion.Someone may be formulating a question in his or her mind and need another minute to chime in.Silence doesn’t always imply consent.Make sure someone has finished speaking before you begin, lest you interrupt others mid-sentence.
·If a group of people are meeting in the same room, with other remote sites dialing in, try to make the virtual participants feel included.If someone cracks a joke and busts the group up with laughter, let the others know who said what and repeat the joke.
·Use the “mute” feature of the phone when you’re not speaking, so participants can’t hear your background music or barking dog.Some systems allow the facilitator to “mute all” participants, taking them off mute at selected times to ask or respond to questions.
·Be present.“I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention; could you repeat the question?” is an all-too-common phrase heard during calls.Don’t risk looking unprofessional.Stay focused.As good as you think you are at multi-tasking, the conscious mind is not capable of reading email and listening to a speaker at exactly the same time.Surfing the net or pressing the mute button so you can carry on another conversation effectively removes you from the meeting.
·Keep side conversations to a minimum.It’s frustrating as a remote teleconference participant to hear “babbling” in the background.It’s difficult to distinguish the actual speaker from the other noise and sounds like a constant echo on the line.
·Read all pre-work and be prepared to participate actively in the conversation.Just because no one can see you doesn’t mean your voice won’t be missed if you’re silent.
Here we go again: another report showing us how much technology is going to save us time and reduce the American workweek. Didn’t we hear this 20 years ago? How we would all have so much extra time on our hands due to technological improvements? That’s just like the "paperless office," which of course is a joke, since we generate much more paper now than before the advent of the computer.
A Gartner research report released on May 30 says that by 2015, workers will be working 20 hours instead of 40. It argues that workers are seeking a more fulfilling life balance and employers better catch on if they want to retain good employees. They sort of forget to consider that many people consider working an ecomomic reality and can’t afford to drop down to a 20-hour week. The report encourages employers to create job descriptions for 20-hour positions. Ugh….don’t we just call this part time?
It does cite the need for increased flexibility for workers, which I agree with, but usually that’s the ability to be able to work some hours from home. It also states that it will be very difficult to draw a distinction between the personal and work computing environment. Many employers have already figured this out and provide access to the corporate workstation from home. Others use Blackberries or laptops as a desktop with a docking station, so the work environment is portable. This is already being done, of course, so I fail to see what is to unique or novel in this report. Increased flexibility and combined computing does not equate to a 20-hour week. In my work teaching corporate seminars and speaking at conferences, I’m finding the work week continues to *climb* for the average worker. As people have more flexibility and can work from home, they tend to just add more to their plates. They leave work, go home, plug in, and keep working!
