Do you know the rules and manners of an effective virtual meeting

GIVEN MY PREFERENCE for order and rules, I propose a follow-up to the seven rules I previously suggested for managing virtual team meetings via e-mail. Rules give us a common base of understanding what is acceptable at the office. This is especially important in a virtual team's impersonal, distanced setting.

To be clear, let's define rules vs. manners. Both are useful in the virtual team setting, but rules keep you from slandering your competitor in public, whereas manners keep you from cussing about them to your colleagues. Bad manners -- say, chewing with your mouth open or cursing like a sailor when a project goes to hell -- are subjective. But then again, so are rules. Why else would we have so much litigation?

You may ask why we need special rules for virtual meetings. Easy. Ask me or anyone who lives and dies by telephone conferences: We have to replace the nonverbal clues that drive face-to-face meetings but which are lost over a telephone line.

If your idea at a meeting makes people around the table lean in and look directly at you, you know you've piqued their interest; conversely if your boss crosses his or her arms, you get another message, all without a word uttered.

What happens to those visual messages when you or your boss and several others meet virtually, without benefit of videoconferencing or tele-immersion? Noise, distractions, and inexact language make for misunderstandings and lost productivity. How much time do you have for lost productivity?

Sometime soon in your career -- if not now -- you'll work remotely or manage a virtual team. Gartner predicts that by 2004 80 percent of knowledge-related work in global 2000 companies will be completed by virtual teams. They also predict what I call "road-warrior fallout": According to Gartner, by 2004 80 percent of those who have assigned workstations will be away from their desks 50percent of the time.

For those of you still on the line, here are a few more rules for managing virtual team meetings. Good luck. I break several every time I attend a virtual meeting.

Rules for the meeting chair

1. Designate someone else to keep notes.

2. Identify yourself, the attendees, and the meeting's purpose and agenda at the outset.

3. Ask if those calling in can hear everyone.

4. Don't drag the central location conference speaker across the table. It's painful for those dialing in.

5. Have attendees' IM (instant messaging) addresses so that you can contact everyone during technical problems.

6. Summarize the meeting's decisions and action points at the end, or send a follow-up message via e-mail.

7. Make a point to ask for input from those dialing in. They often find it difficult to break in or may be distracted.

8. Pause between thoughts. Give attendees aural clues to replace visual clues.

9. Keep speakers and the meeting on point.

10. Keep the meeting short.

Manners for the meeting attendees

1. Don't call in on a cell phone. Cell phones go in and out of range and batteries die.

2. Identify yourself when you first speak and occasionally thereafter.

3. Don't play music in the background.

4. Use proper nouns rather than pronouns. A statement such as "It's not working for them" is wide-open for interpretation.

5. Don't point or gesticulate. Others can't hear your hands moving.

6. Ask questions if you don't understand something or have lost the conversation thread.

7. Don't multitask. Concentrate on the virtual meeting and ignore the 10 other pressing items on your desk.

» posted by ITworld staff

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