June 24, 2002, 12:00 AM — What you're trying to do is build relationships among your people as
well as attends to department business when you have meetings. Your
hidden agenda (if you will) is to move away from the depersonalized
email and chat modes of communicating so that your people develop a
sense of camaraderie with their fellows by allowing them to connect with
the real voice and person of the others while simultaneously sharing
thoughts, comments, and asking questions in real time. Two styles of
meeting are discussed in this issue: in-person meetings, voice meetings,
and web conferences.
In-Person Meetings
There are team meetings for those who are all part of the same
department and in the same building. Even though these people are around
one another all day, everyday, it's good to have regular briefing
meetings, instead of email updates, so that you can get one of the most
important elements in your department -- feedback. These are the times
when your team will have an opportunity to voice their concerns about
the implementation of some programs, offer ideas, have time to actually
discuss some processes with their colleagues without feeling pressured
because they're taking time away from their normal activities. These can
be times when the results of something in beta by one person can be
shared with the group and in-house learning can take place.
Be careful to use these types of meetings strategically. Even though you
stay on schedule and on task, these are taking time away from work that
needs to be done.
Voice Meetings
Although not as personal as the in-person session, there is a good basis
for having voice meetings via online conferencing. These are effective
when you have several members of your team who are scattered in other
locations or other parts of the globe.
The beauty of online voice meetings or conferences is that
transportation and travel costs are drastically reduced to zero while
all of your people can still get the personal element of their remote
associates. Those associates are no longer mere words on a computer
monitor or piece of paper. They now have actual voices that make them
real people to others; an appreciation of the fact that one is dealing
with another individual is just one of the benefits. Connection with
that other person is developed.
These styles of meeting are good when what you want is healthy
discussion among your team or colleagues and no document sharing is
required.
Web Conferences
Web conferences are good when there is only one speaker who needs to
share documents with the rest of the group or document sharing among the
participants needs to occur. Although neither the voice nor the image
nor the sense of size of the audience is there, you still have the
benefits of the online voice meeting, which are reduced travel and
transportation costs, ease of scheduling.
