OPTED Magazine

I received a question from Ashley the other day where she expressed her frustration at her organization’s frequent, unproductive conference calls and how much they affected her productivity.  Here’s what she said:

In a fit of frustration I’m calling on you for help!  My business has a habit of scheduling conference calls for everything!  Sometimes we have calls to plan future calls!  Sometimes I have a big role in the call, sometimes not, but every time they occur my productivity plunges.  Is there anything I can do to stay productive?  Do you have any words of wisdom?

Ashley, here is my advice.  The first thing you must determine is what your role is during the conference call?  Are you on call for facilitating the discussion or taking notes for the call?  Do you have parts of the agenda where you are expected to provide the lions share of the background or answer an extensive list of questions?  If you have a small role in the call, perhaps only listening in or have a small level of participation, then the only barrier to sustaining productivity is neglecting to plan ahead.

Here are some steps you can take to aid productivity during your conference calls:

1. Assess your role and plan for it — if you have a role to play in the conference call beyond just listening in, plan ahead for your participation.  If you can assess the agenda ahead of time and determine that you’re off the hook for 3 of the 5 items to be discussed, you can plan accordingly for the call and make sure you have other things to do to fill that slow time.
2. Define your “multi-task items” — what do I mean by this?  It doesn’t matter what your career or business is, there are always tasks that are suitable for multitasking.  For instance, you can’t make other phone calls and process voicemail when you’re on a conference call, but you can catch up on filing, triaging email or work on a to-do list.  Many of your standard, recurring tasks will be perfect for multi-tasking during a conference call.
3. Save appropriate tasks in advance — say you know in advance you have a conference call scheduled for later in the day.  Save all the “multi-task” items for during that time and spend your day before and after the call completing as many tasks as you can that would not be possible during the phone call.  It’s time management at its best.
4. Demand an agenda, time limit and facilitator — regardless of your level of participation in the conference call, always insist that your calls meet three criteria: have an agenda, a pre-determined time limit and someone to facilitate.  There is nothing worse than an open ended discussion with no direction or parameters.  No meeting should be without these criteria and conference calls are no exception.  Demanding these three conditions will substantially increase the productivity and decrease the time of the call.

Sometimes the conditions under which you take the call change everything!  It’s one thing to take the call in your office where you can mute yourself and listen on speaker phone.  It’s quite another to be sitting with your coworkers in a conference room collectively participating in a call.  But even in those circumstances a pen and paper would be normal and accepted, which means list making and a paper brainstorm would be a perfect multi-task solution.  Or try to print out one long email or document and read it over discreetly as the call takes place.

How do you stay productive during conference calls?  Any other strategies I missed?

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