Phone Meetings
I am a team leader for a group of Online Teachers. Each of us works from home and we never meet in person. We have regular meetings that take place over the phone.
Does anyone have any suggestions or insights for leading a team that never meets in person? I have trouble encouraging participation. It seems easy for individuals to hide behind their phone receiver and talk very little.
Also, do you have any tips for making a phone meeting seem more personal?
Douglass,
There are all kinds of free shareware that enables one to many video interactions. SKYPE has a new platform that allows multiple participants to see each other. Video Whisper is a software that enables team members to see each other. Although not as interactive, services like Go To Meeting and WebEx allow all members to talk and see what is on the screen.
It is great that you are trying to improve the interactivity in your meetings. It means you care about your team and their results. Congratulations.
Dr. Jamie Morley
Greetings, Douglass. I frequently participate in telephone meetings. Before each meeting, the participants are emailed the agenda and requested to provide the team leader with thoughts and comments before the meeting. These emails are shared with all participants. This provides a level of focus during the telephone conference. During the telephone meeting, the team leader will direct the discussion toward the individual who submitted a particular email comment. This broadens the involvement of the amjority of phone participants. Following the meeting, participants are furnished a notes summarizing the meeting topics and highlighting discussion points. Thereafter, participants are encouraged to email follow-up thoughts.
James,
I agree with the methods you suggest to encourage productive phone meetings. Another trick that I use is to incorporate a visual component to the meeting. Using WebEx or GoToMeeting is free or very inexpensive and adds another dimension to the call. It helps keep participants “honest†and focused and there is less chance that they will be distracted by email.
Dr. Jamie Morley
I think that this sounds like a great way for me to meet with all of my adjunct instructors as they all have full time dental jobs during the day and it is difficult to meet with the full time day instructors at the same time. I am going to use this strategy because I think that this will help them feel more cohesive and connected to the full time instructors. I am currently meeting separately with adjunct and full time and then once a month together but not everyone can attend. Thanks so much for the great suggestion. I also email the meeting minutes the following day and I have found that this is a great way to review if they have any questions about what was discussed.
Pamela,
A key to a successful phone meeting is the premeeting work that you require and the minutes that are sent out that codify decisions and opinions. Require each of your teachers to submit a brief report prior to each call. It could include items like, # of students that are failing, , # of students absent for more than 3 consecutive days, supplies needed, upcoming events, and help needed from other departments. I require that this report is sent prior to the weekly call so that I can be ready to ask questions or provide solutions. Another helpful tool is to set up a virtual website or portal page for your team. Encourage them to respond to threaded questions or suggestions and to post issues. This enables you to have communication throughout the week even if you are not all the teachers are available at the same time and place for the call.
Dr. Jamie Morley
Is it possible for you to have the participants take turns leading the call? After sending the agenda in advance, allow each to conduct the weekly call. I think it may also help to let the participants decide on the format and frequency of the call.
Patricia,
Taking turns is a wonderful best-practice! Not only does it ensure accountability and preparation on their part, it develops their presentation and leadership skills. It also helps you, as the team leader, to assess skills and weaknesses and gives you an insight into areas where you could help your employees develop.
Dr. Jamie Morley
On a monthly and quarterly basis I participate in meetings with directors and sr. directors from all parts of the country via phone. Some of these people I have met in person and some I have never seen at all. In some of these meetings I have observed the facilitator "probing" participants for input regarding the purpose of the meeting. Some participants are much more active than others and it would seem that many put their phone on mute and simply listen in while performing other tasks. I recently conducted a meeting where I required all participants to come to the meeting prepared with a topic that they would like to discuss with the team. I emailed the meeting agenda and subcategories to the participants prior to the meeting so that they could begin to formulate thoughts and solutions to the content. During the meeting I found that participation was excellent and the flow of thoughts and ideas was nearly overwhelming. We were able to hit all of the discussion points and create ideas for handlng each of those areas. I definitely recommend emailing the agenda prior to the meeting and requiring all participants to provide at least one thought or idea regarding one of the topics.
Jonathan,
Great. People should be "required" to participate until it becomes a learn and hopefully rewarded behavior.
Ron Obstfeld
1. Each member should have a computer that can utilize either skype or has a camera.
2. The computers should be able to allow all individuals to be seen on everyone's computer.
3. Then you can talk to them eye to eye instead of mouth to ear.
David,
What if the technology is not available?
Ron Obstfeld
Our team is comprised of 12 members, located in 10 different states, that "meet" twice a month, at 3 PM central time.
The facilatator sends out a spreadsheet 2x a year, indicating who will be the presenter, take attendnace, who will be the timekeeper and who will be the note taker. the presentor is required to send the agenda and all relevant materials out to all participants, 3 days prior to the meeting. It is policy, if one cannot make the meeting, contact is made with the facilatator who will make the substitutions. Each person is required to comment on the presentation and their updates. Maybe, it is the fact that our notes are passed onto the "higher ups" that we have close to 100% participation.
I find phone meetings are great ways to "follow-up" on topics but a difficult medium to elicit engagement.
