Redemption of Conference Calls

Last week it was emails...so why not talk about a close second in the difficulty rankings for communication - the dreaded conference call. There have been a couple of recent posts out there in the blog world recently on the topic:

• Sasha talked about how to run your team on one end of the call
• Godin talked about adding a chat/presentation tool to the call
  

I'd like to add in one more part to the conversation - the group conference call. These are those calls you have with multiple organizations (1+) that brings another team to the the table.

So let's say you've got your team in place using Sasha's techniques above, and are using the chat/presentation feature Seth suggests - how do you wrangle in the folks from all sides? On calls like this, you've probably experienced people talking on top of each other, cell phone interference, speaker phone traffic, no leadership, people afraid to speak up...and those are just the ones I could think of in a quick 10 seconds.

There are solutions, but its up to us managers of the world to tackle these and bring some order to the chaos. We can run a good one...here's how:

• Be clear about who the leader is on the call. If there are multiple teams, there may be multiple leaders, but the lead org should take the lead (meaning the organization that is the ultimate stake-holder). If there's no lead org, you've got bigger issues to solve first.
  
  
• Be on time (even early) and start on time. If someone else is more than 5 min late to the call, start without them. If its mission critical for them to be on the call, step away from the conf call for a min and try calling them direct on their cell AND emailing them to let them know you're waiting on them. If 10 min passes and still no-show (again - only for the mission criticals), apologize and tell the group you'll have to reschedule.
  
  
• Send all info BEFORE the call (not during...). This includes things like documents you'll be reviewing, login info, etc. If something needs to be reviewed before the call and you expect to hear concise feedback (not blink reactions), make sure you send it hours in advance (if not a full day). Don't expect a smooth call if you're wasting the first 20 minutes trying to get things in front of people.
  
  
• Send a reminder about the call the same day (even if you've done a calendar invite) along with critical details (dial-in info, etc). It sounds weird, but also include timezone info in your reminder. I've been shocked at how many conference calls were missed because someone said "noon" to someone in a different timezone.
  
  
• Whittle down large groups to the critically necessary folks (sorry interns). This is much easier to do for your team (see Sasha's entry). Much harder to tell someone else's org to do. But go ahead and make the suggestion anyways. Everyone will be glad you did in the end.
  
  
• And whatever you do DO NOT use speaker phone. Use conference party lines that allow everyone to get on their own horn and chat. This one step alone will reduce 75% of your problems.

Try it out.

Blasted Email

Lately, I've been increasingly bothered by inaction....

Emails, more than anything, seem to spark this fervor of frustration inside of me. Sometimes I send an email, I know its received, and then nothing ever happens in response...ever. Did it fall off the face of the web-earth? And please don't tell me it went into Spam...that's a totally lame excuse (even if its true). With all the ways we communicate with people, Email has just lost its value as a MUST-RESPOND-TO item. You get email notifications about Facebook messages, comments on your status, Twitter followers, random emails that don't really need a response, mass forwards, and on. To make matters worse, we take our email on the road and then sync it with our computers at work...so if I've read a message quickly on the go, its certainly been taken care of...right?

Actually...that's almost never the case.

A good rule of thumb I try to employ across the board is to make sure that not one email that warrants a response slips through the cracks...not one. I do this by marking all my email messages as unread that still require a response. My boss Craig uses a different method - leaving all email messages that require action to remain in his inbox, while those that do not need a response get moved elsewhere. The point isn't to use a specific method, rather, its to have a method.

In addition, I also use a 24 hour rule. If I've received the message during the work week, I've got to get back to that person within 24 hrs. Same day is really what I'm shooting for, but the ultimatum is 24 hrs.

Getting a handle of your emails is something few do well - especially if you're someone who receives large numbers of them on a daily basis. Manage them well and people will notice. You will standout from the masses.

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And if you get tired of email, you can revert back to the original medium...

Process to Innovate

I've been reading The Designful Company by Marty Neumeier this past month. Early on, Marty tells a quick story about what innovative companies look like:

“Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, I-LOVE-THIS-COMPANY. With Apple, its the customers who shout that.”

Steve Jobs saw problems consumers dealt with and found unique and stylish ways of combating those everyday problems. He designed his solutions.

So if we want to be like Apple and innovate real, needed, and wanted solutions - where do we start?

My thought...we start with our dreams. But in order to do that, we've got to first admit, acknowledge, and share the things that prevent our dreams in the first place...our realities.

Looking at how to get to this result with a business team, I came up with a 3 step process that helps facilitate a group to think together about what could be (its best to do it on a board of some kind):

1. Constraints
   We start out with the least fun part, but the part that gets everyone a little more comfortable with being able to dream - we deal with the everyday Constraints. Constraints are those sticky things that keep you from easily moving about within your business. Its the barriers that box you in to certain decisions. Things like budgets, deadlines, current service offerings, development costs, competition, etc.
   
   This list can get long, but its important to let all your Constraints be spoken outloud to give them all the attention they deserve. Afterall, most of us spend the majority of our days trying to jump these hurdles, avoid them, and figure out how to manage them. These are the things that keep us from really engaging our imagination. We assume our Constraints are largely immovable, so we resign ourselves to a worklife of working around or within them.
   
   
2. Ideals
   After everyone has given voice to every constraint you can possibly think of, its time to get everyone engage in their dreams or Ideals. Ideals are those things you wish were true about the projects you work on, the amount of profit your company makes, the types of companies you work with, and so on. This list may be shorter and you may need to encourage everyone to speak up, but this is a huge step toward the process of innovation.
   
   With your board chalked full of all your Constraints in sight, your team won't will feel the need to say things like, "we can't do that...think about how little we get paid for that service", etc. Everyone will know the ugly Constraints aren't being ignored, so they will feel increasingly comfortable letting them go (at least in the moment) and thinking about what they really wish was true about your business.
   
   
3. Innovation
   Now comes the fruition...its time to look at all you've written on your board and consider all of the Constraints you currently deal with as well as all the Ideals you wish were true. You'll begin the process of designing solutions to accomplish your Ideals while considering your Constraints. Don't get caught up on the idea that this is a matter of ignoring the Constraints to just engage the Ideals, or even vice versa. Rather, this is about asking yourself questions like,
   

• "Can this Constraint be adjusted to accommodate this Ideal?"
• "Will this Ideal increase our ability to serve our customers?"
• "If we can't adjust any Constraints to accomplish this Ideal, how can we accomplish this Ideal through another means?"
• "Is this Constraint even necessary?"

You'll be surprised to see the speed at which real, tangible, ideas start going up on the board - ideas that are feasible and have a real shot of seeing the light of day.

Even the oldest, most set-in-their-ways of companies can employ this and get to real innovative solutions to offer to the marketplace.

Give it a try...and let me know what your team came up with. And if you'd like to give it a try, but don't feel like trying to lead it yourself, give me a shout...I'd be happy to help lead a session with your team.

Signs of Decay

A friend and colleague sent this to me the other day. Not sure exactly which building, but its from one of the memorials in D.C.

This sentiment is also very true for the economic climate we find ourselves in today. Companies have failed to remember the dust they started from, have gotten large and seemingly "too big to fail", and deemed themselves invincible. No one is invincible, nor should they be.

Bringing it down to an even more intimate level, this can also be said for those of us in roles as managers. If we think we're insulated, too much depends on us, we're doing our jobs, and so on - we're wrong. The same rule that applies to deeply entrenched companies also applies to deeply entrenched employees right now - its about how excellent and remarkable you are. Companies like Google and Apple are weathering the storm while companies more far removed from their "hard beginnings" are failing (ex: GM).

The application for us as managers is to get back to the roots of when we first started our jobs - the hungry, idea-filled, optimistic start that captured the attention, appreciation, and respect of our co-workers, customers, and boss. Don't let the decay set in.

Caring is Step 1

Its a cheesy thing to say, but often good management starts with something as simple as just caring.

This isn't the completely altruistic sense of the word - part of this is actually caring about being successful both for yourself and your company.

But it is largely outward focused. Good project management is about caring who it is you are working for, caring for the success of the company or idea you are serving, caring about the needs of the person - for their deadlines, budgets, etc. On a baseline level, this IS effective management and will extend and evolve as you practice it.

On the inverse side of caring, another motivating factor can be fear. But if fear is gripping you to the point that it is driving your actions, you'll get tripped up in the defense or protection of yourself and your own interests - and that will almost always steer you toward the wrong decision.

Fear led GM to the debacle they find themselves in today, as it did with the real estate brokers who were trying to protect their lifestyles and assets. But caring motivates you to make a different decision for yourself and your client, one that considers more factors than just your climb up the ladder and your finances.

So how do you do something as vague as care? Start with some of the most simple acts and let it grow from there. Get to know your client (personally), their business, their product and services - find something worthwhile, something remarkable about who they are and what they do - and find something to genuinely care about. Your management decisions will mature in impact and effectiveness as you do.