SprintBusiness MeetingsFromHell eBook

For companies with people in them

Meeting Hell and the 7 sins that will put you thereA Sprint guide to making conference calls and video conferences less painful

Collaborate.Mobilize.Accelerate.Work this way

Hell is other people and theyre all in your meeting

Teamwork is a precious thing. It helps us make better decisions, spark brighter ideas, get things done quicker, and most importantly, have fun.

But the way we work together is changing. Released by technology, todays teams are increasingly dispersed, mobile and fluid.

Some of the technology supporting this change isnt all that new in terms of its functionality at least. Bank of America was holding early versions of teleconferences in 1968, while IBM introduced still video conferencing in 19751.

Whats new is that its everywhere. Infonetics found that 87% of North American enterprises were planning to add video conferencing to their Unified Communication architecture by August 20142. And its not just in our offices. Its in our homes, purses, and pockets.

Is this good news for teamwork? Yes. But it doesnt always feel that way. When Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that Hell is other people, he probably wasnt thinking about corporate conferencing. But a badly-run virtual meeting can easily plunge an upbeat team into soul-sucking Meeting Hell:

Losing the will to live as they search for a time everyone can make

Desperately ____ follow a conversation ____ keeps dropping out

Recapping the conversation for the fiftieth time as another latecomer joins

Wondering whos talking now. And which _____ hasnt muted their line?

Unproductive meetings arent just hell for the people involved, theyre hell for organizations, too wasting money and time, damaging relationships and delaying decisions.

1. What to Expect From Teleconferencing, Johnson and Bullen, 1983 http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/49394/whattoexpectfrom00joha.pdf 2. 2013 UC Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey, http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2013/UC-Strategies-Survey-Highlights.asp

Sprint Business Meeting Hell and the 7 sins that will put you there

Read on to discover the 7 Deadly Sins of Modern Meetings, and get tips on saving your organization, yourself and your coworkers from a trip to Meeting Hell.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Modern Meetings


Save yourself (and your coworkers) from Meeting Hell, by avoiding these seven sins.

One Wastefulness


Virtual meetings are meant to make your day more productive. But if you spend 30 minutes setting up the call, sending invites, finding the leader cant make it, sending invites again youre already well on your way to Meeting Hell. And youre having no fun at all.

You could really use those 30 minutes to work on your super-important project. Or do some extra preparation for the call. Or end Jeffs reign as king of the office ping-pong table.

Your Steps to Redemption

Check you actually need a meeting. Want to share some deadline news with your project team? Sending a quick email could save everybody time.

Be ruthless with your invite list. Does your VPs personal dry-cleaner really need to be there?

Embrace the magical modern world. The latest business communications solutions include presence features that can reveal, at a glance, whos available to talk right now. Pull them all together with a few quick IMs, and hey presto youre ready to work.

Sin #1Wastefulness


Saintly Wisdom

Decisions should never wait for a meeting. If its critical that a meeting take place before a decision is made, then that meeting needs to happen right away. Kristen Gil, VP Business Operations, Google


Two Resignation

The glitching videos and dodgy connections of Meeting Hell can crush even the strongest spirit. But resign yourself to your fate, and youll sink even faster into the fiery abyss.

Witness the true story of Matt and Simon:

Matt: Hello? Hello? Simon, are you there?

Simon: Yes Matt, ______ here! So, this quarter _____ and _____. Which changes everything, right?

Matt: Um, yes. Are you outside? Im having some difficulty hearing you.

Simon: OK, well, I was saying that theres ______ if we dont _____ utterly catastrophic. Agreed? Matt?

Matt: NEEEEEEE! think NEEEEEEEE! to hear you NEEEEEEEEE! but, yes. I think so. Yes.

Simon: Getting some feedback there, Matt. Well, lets keep going, Im walking downtown, maybe the line will ________

Matt and Simons torment continued for what seemed like an eternity.

The lesson? Dont suffer technical demons gladly.


There are some practical steps you can take before the call, and some when its underway.

On conference calls:

Dont walk and talk. A good, modern mobile network can provide stronger coverage than ever, but unless youve no other option, its still better to talk now and walk later.

Dont talk and drive. Your hands might be free, but so are the regular dropouts and roaring traffic noise.

Silence the demon feedback. (Mute your phone when youre not speaking.)

On videoconferences:

Pause your ongoing downloads. Every episode of Breaking Bad will still be on iTunes when youre done.

Close any programs youre not using.

Break out the Ethernet cables, and connect via your LAN.

Sin #2 Resignation


How IT can help

Choose a network with high call quality and 4G LTE data capabilities. By modernizing to a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution, you can also ensure:

Everyone in your organization is on the latest version of the software

Any technical demons are dealt with by a single source of support

ThreeUnreadiness


The road to Meeting Hell is paved with good intentions.

Intentions like, Ill definitely read Michelles report before joining her on the call and Ill remember to sign in early, and check my slides are going to look just as sweet on everyone elses screens as they do on mine

You know you should prepare. Make the steps below your pre-meeting checklist.


Before a conference call:

Know who youre going to be talking to, and what they do if necessary, look them up on LinkedIn (remember to switch to Anonymous first if you dont want them to think youre stalking them)

Familiarize yourself with the call agenda

Know whos the leader

Put all your dial-ins, meeting codes and passwords in the same place

Before a web conference or videoconference:

Make sure youve downloaded any necessary software

If the software is new to you, take two minutes to familiarize yourself with its functions how do you mute your line? Raise your hand? Pass the ball?

Put the report youll be talking about in a shared space, rather than trying to email it around at the start of the call.

Sin #3 Unreadiness


How IT can help

Find a way there are plenty to make document sharing easy. When everyone can access the same document using whichever software, device and OS they want, everything becomes less hellish: from collaborating on agendas and sharing key information mid-conversation, to ensuring everyone gets the notes or minutes.

FourConfusion


In Meeting Heaven, one voice speaks, another responds, and a decision is swiftly made.

In Meeting Hell, twenty voices speak at once, fall silent for a few, uneasy seconds then speak at once. Conversations veer hopelessly off-topic. Decisions hang painfully unresolved. People roll their eyes with frustration, then realize its a video call.

In Meeting Hell, confusion rules supreme.


Fortunately, eliminating confusion is totally within your power:

Create an agenda, and work through it one point at a time

Give everyone their chance have a list of attendees and ask each for their input in turn

If the leader isnt leading (or hasnt turned up), step up to the plate yourself

Say who you are before you speak, especially if people have rolled up late

Step in when necessary ask people to take irrelevant/unresolved discussions offline

Sin #4 Confusion


How IT can help

A good video conferencing solution should help users minimize confusion at every stage, with:

Easy transference of call leadership

One-click screen sharing

Automatic muting of sound from other programs

Real-time note-taking

Meeting Hell of the future will be just like Meeting Hell today. But with robots.

Telepresence Robots

Even todays most sophisticated video conferencing facilities have certain limitations. When you finish your meeting with Alice, for example, you cant pop down the corridor to see Bob in Accounts, and overhear Carol explaining her great new idea by the water cooler along the way.

Telepresence robots promise to change all that. Essentially a mobile unit equipped with a microphone, speaker, camera and live video, a telepresence robot lets users navigate

distant spaces from the comfort of their own screen. Current designs range from self-contained robotic devices to remote-controlled cradles for Apples iPad3.

Telepresence Drones

Workers at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo have even created a helium-filled telepresence drone4. Essentially a remote-control balloon with your real-time face projected on the front, it has the power to give telepresence technology a further lift and open up a whole new circle of Meeting Hell. Steer into the meeting room cactus, and your call could be a real let down.

How to escape the future Meeting Hell:

Make sure your robot is on the right floor most current models dont do stairs.

Talk to people on their own level if you can lower and raise the height of your screen to match the height of the person youre talking to, youre less likely to seem like an over-animated vacuum-cleaner, or a towering, authoritarian deathbot.

Try not to run over the CEOs toes.


Interlude: a glimpse of the future

3. The Economist, Telepresence Robots: Your Alter Ego On Wheels, http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21572916-robotics-remotely-controlled-telepresence-robots-let-people-be-two-places 4. New Scientist, Telepresence robots go airborne, http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/05/jim-giles-contributor-vancouve-1.html


FiveUnprofessionalism

Lets get this one straight, once and for all.

When you dial-in from an airport check-in desk, a kitchen yelping with excitable whippets, or even (really?) the bathroom, you are not proving your overwhelming dedication to your work.

Youre fast-tracking yourself, and everyone else on your call, to one of Meeting Hells most fiery pits.


Enduring unprofessionalism is teeth-gnashingly hard. Being professional isnt:

Find a quiet space whether youre out and about, or making your call during the offices annual table-football tournament.

We know how much you love Power-Paws and Mr Fluffington. But unless theyve something genuinely important to contribute to the meeting, they shouldnt be stealing the show. (This is true whether theyre your dogs, your cats, or your children).

Be the first person there. If this means youre alone in a two-minute conversation with the CEO, so much the better you can show him/her how great you are.

Keep snacking and drink-slurping to the minimum its noisy, and its a distraction.

Dont do anything you wouldnt do in front of these people in real life

Sin #5 Unprofessionalism


Saintly Wisdom

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Take care, TCB Aretha Franklin, Unofficial Spokesperson for Meeting Attendees Everywhere


SixInconsideration

How often do you put yourself in other peoples shoes? (And we dont mean trying on Joels new office slippers when hes out getting a sandwich.)

A lack of consideration can ruin an otherwise heavenly meeting, slowly fanning flames of anger and annoyance in the hearts of everyone present.

And with videoconferencing ever more popular, there are a host of extra elements to think about if you want to save your clients and coworkers from some of the most excruciating torments Meeting Hell has to offer.


Considerate conference calling:

Check your time zones before you ask coworkers in London, Tokyo and Sydney to join.

If you want to take notes, get a hands-free cradle the handset in your neck, and theres a good chance your coworkers will think a nuisance caller has just joined the meeting.

Considerate videoconferencing:

Dont type notes on the same device youre calling from. So close to your microphone, even the most graceful keystrokes can sound like a downpour of heavy plastic rain.

Light yourself from the front youll look more like a movie star, and your coworkers wont have to squint into a screen of dark shadows and dazzling brightness.

Dress for the medium. Avoid stripes and checks, favor pastel colors, and remove any jewelry thats going to reflect light or clatter against your microphone.

Position yourself in the center of the screen, sit up straight, and look down the camera.

How small is that font? Ensure your presentation slides are simple and legible.

Sin #6Inconsideration



SevenIgnorance

Ignorance is the last, and most dangerous, of all the sins.

You may not be in Meeting Hell, but if you dont know what your meetings are costing in terms of money, time and effectiveness theres a real danger your organization is.

Some telltale signs that the flames are rising: high telephone and data bills; slow meeting scheduling; your systems arent scaling as you grow.


First, banish your ignorance:

Track the time you spend on calls and videoconferences, including time spent in preparation and follow-up

Make sure you fully understand your call costs

Review the TCO of all your meeting technologies could it be reduced?

Second, take positive action. This could mean:

Limiting all meetings to an hour. Or half an hour. Or ten minutes.

Introducing standing meetings

Creating and distributing a company-wide guide to meeting etiquette (or just sharing this one)

Sin #7 Ignorance


5. http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/redir/XT104140223.aspx

How IT can help

Unified communications (UC) can bring new efficiency and effectiveness to meetings. A cloud-based UC solution could also deliver greater scalability, and lower costs, and the chance to turn CAPEX into OPEX with pricing per user.

Congratulations. Youre ready to save yourself from Meeting Hell, and live in a world of productive, efficient, joyful collaboration.

But thats the thing about Meeting Hell you can never completely escape it on your own. Share this guide with your coworkers. And maybe theyll share it with their coworkers and eventually, well build Meeting Heaven together.

Conclusion: see you in Meeting Heaven


About Sprint


For companies with people in them

Collaborate.Mobilize.Accelerate.Work this way

Sprint works closely with businesses to design and deliver their perfect communication and collaboration solution one that matches their needs, hopes and dreams.

We help businesses:

Communicate better from virtually anywhere, on virtually any device, and through multiple channels, over our high-capacity 3G and 4G LTE network

Collaborate better using voice and video, and your favorite document sharing tools

Work better with unified, cloud-based systems, that boost flexibility while reducing costs

Learn more about Sprint Unified Communication and Collaboration services

SprintBusiness MeetingsFromHell eBook

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