Do you Really NEED to See Me Now?

In today’s pandemic controlled business world, the opportunity to see your colleagues around a conference table does not really exist. In fact, in many areas and non-essential industries it may actually be illegal. So, what is a Team to do?

First, I would have you answer the critical question: Do you Really NEED to See your Colleagues?

For many of us in the Gen X or Baby Boomer groups, we used old fashioned landline telephones and set up conference calls to speak to our teams. This was the widely used form of communication for a long time. Enter Millennials, the Digital and Virtual Age, and we find ourselves rarely using landline telephone communication much anymore.

And this is a good time to mention, DO NOT USE YOUR CELL PHONE for conference calls. There is nothing more annoying and distracting than background noise from a cell phone when engaged in a large group conference call. Please, HEAR ME NOW, do whatever you can to ensure you do NOT sign into a meeting with a cell phone. If you do not have a landline, please take the call from an area where you have 5 bars and will not be cutting in and out. This is a business critical point - if you want to be heard, use a landline, and if you only have a cell phone, consider adding your landline for the next month. The noise and unreliability of a cell phone on a conference call is one of the biggest distractions to a productive, multi-person phone meeting.

Using a phone conference call is a safe and more sustainable method when one considers the resources tied up in virtual imaging and the bandwidth needed for such virtual video calls. Not to mention the obvious - the strain of ensuring your backdrop is office worthy and the children and pets in your home do not make an unscheduled, albeit humorous, appearance.

A few comedic anecdotal examples: “Is that my colleague’s Laundry on the floor?”, “Their house is rather ugly and messy”, “Wow, look at that house! I can only imagine living there”. “Is that a SubZero Refrigerator?, How much do they make versus me?!?!” “Good God, are you in a Closet?!?!” And, for us dog loving folks, we live in fear of the UPS or FedEx Truck coming down the street while we are on one of these calls! Many a video appearance by a crazed barking dog running to take down the delivery truck has been seen streaming across virtual meetings! And, not to leave out, that curious cat who decides the Video Call is the purrfect opportunity to clean oneself on the computer board or behind Dad, who has no idea of the scene unfolding behind him, until someone cannot contain themself and blurts out “What the heck is that cat doing?!?”.

So, think first about IF you really need to see people for a meeting. Consider using the tried and true method of a telephone conference call. If you have free domestic long distance calling within the US, check out www.freeconferencecall.com as this is what my firm uses and it has worked quite well!

If you truly need to use a Visual Conference Setting, first ask yourself if the presentation can be converted to a PDF and emailed to everyone for discussion over a telephone conference. If it is imperative and business critical to meet and see one another virtually, such as an introductory call with a new client you have never met before, or an RFP Presentation, or documents which need to be seen and changed with agreement of folks on the call, here are the many platforms I have been presented with: Skype, WhatsApp, Talky, Viber., ooVoo, WeChat, Slack, Jitsi, GoToMeeting, Zoom, Cisco Webex Teams, Google Hangouts, Uber Conference,Viber, Microsoft Teams, Chanty, Hive, Lifesize, blujeans, Appear.In, Fleep, Mattermost, Workplace by Facebook, and Wire. The list actually can continue. A simple Google Search brings up many articles or suggestions and reviews of all of these and more. The most common we have seen recently are Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and GoToMeeting.

A few recommendations when agreeing to a virtual meeting: Choose a quiet room in your house, one that is orderly and has a pleasant background, make sure, if at all possible, the chosen room has a door with a lock on it to ensure privacy in the meeting, close any windows to quell the outside noise interference, and try to have your home internet access be the highest bandwidth your provider offers. Without that strength, the likelihood of your calls disengaging more often than not increases. And, most of all, try to have your chosen room as far away from a bathroom as possible. If you live with other people, there is no telling when they will be using it or how loud it may be amplified on your call.

At the end of the day, we all need to find humor and engagement in our current life conditions. However, at some point, there are some virtual courtesies we can all afford to extend to our colleagues. And, remember, first make sure your need to have a Virtual Video Call is truly business critical not just a chance to show off that 80 inch high tech flat screen tv or impressionist painting you just spent your bonus on! When this confinement eventually passes, throw a party and let everyone see your prized possessions in person. That is a much better way to ensure you are limiting distractions during a Live “See Me Now” meeting.