Team Teleconference Protocols

When a team has distributed geography of its members (sometimes called a "virtual team"), the use of audio teleconferencing is a common means of communication and to hold meetings. When there are more than two persons involved in a teleconference (and there certainly would be on a team call!), it is far too common for those communications to fall short of what can be achieved with in-person exchanges. Talkers stumble over one another, discussion move slowly, participants wonder "who said that?" when they don't immediately recognize a voice, people mumble something in the background that you struggle to hear, and we misinterpret something because we have no clues about body and facial language. These problems compound when the number of persons on the teleconference exceeds five or six. In this case I've seen one person can overly dominate the audio exchange, and/or others who want to contribute to the discussion but do not because they think in their minds, "Why bother, it's too difficult to try and say something".

It is my experience that adhering to some basic protocols participants will go a long way to ensure a coherent meeting (eg, for questions and answers) and a common understanding of meeting outcomes. Here are some helpful hints that I've used with teams and audio teleconferencing:

1. Do not assume everyone knows your voice - it may be helpful to state your name as you begin to talk; consider that not all participants may be regular (core) team members

2. Speak clearly, in sufficient volume, and at a reasonable pace so others can better hear and understand when you are speaking; fast rates of speech can easily be distorted or missed

3. Mute any background noise from entering the audio teleconference, which happens frequently with cell phone callers; also don't make noise yourself (tapping pens or fingers) or talk loudly in the background

4. Help everyone understand when you are done speaking. Use a word or a phrase such as “I’m done" or "That’s all" or "Over” to signify that you are done speaking.

5. Be wise when speaking out. Because all participants cannot see one another, they lose the visual clues that tell us we can ‘have the floor’ to speak, or tell the leader that we’d like to speak (like raising your hand). Until/unless the team implements a means to trigger that (eg, someone monitors an IM channel and controls a queue), participants should be patient when wishing to speak out if not called upon. The team leader (or a facilitator) must be especially attuned, ready, and able to enable open discussion while still maintaining order and control.

Audio teleconferencing is a great time and expense saver for teams, but it has its limits (eg, don't use for brainstorming and deep problem solving sessions). Whatever guides or protocols you follow, write them down and agree upon them as a team, and eventually collective enforcement and adaptation will emerge - existing team members will coach and guide new team members on "Here's how we do it on this team".