Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Lets End the Collective Death by Conference Call

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Let's End the Collective Death by Conference Call According to new InterCall research on workplace conference call behavior, 82 percent of employees admitted to focusing on other work or non-work distractions while on a call. Rob Bellmar, executive vice president of conferencing and collaboration atInterCall, recently offered some great tips toHarvard Business Reviewabout ending conference call abuse. Here are his highlights. Stop striving for inclusiveness Online calendars, scheduling apps and email distribution lists have created a monstrous meeting invite reflex. It has become too easy to send blanket, one-hour meeting invites to 10 people when only five are relevant to the agenda. Businesses need to break free of the notion that all attendees should be on a conference call from start to finish. Rob advises that managers can stagger invitations and plan upfront which topics will be discussed at various points in the meeting. Start using video Video conferencing remains a point of contention, and its adoption curve is a matter of psychological acceptance. The idea that everyone in a meeting can watch what you’re doing deters many workers, as does the dissonance between what we see in the mirror and what’s reflected on our laptop or tablet screens. But Rob cites research fromWainhouse, which found that of the employees who use webcams andsimilar toolsduring meetings, 74 percent like the ability to see colleagues’ reactions to their ideas, and nearly 70 percent feel it increases connectedness between participants. For more con call tips, head over to Intuits Fast Track blog.