Meeting Effectiveness – Collisions

How many times have you been a witness to meeting collisions on conference calls? Collisions where two or sometimes even more people try to speak at the same time. If you are like most people who conduct lots of conference call then you probably see it everyday.  We have a solution for these costly collisions but first lets take a closer look at the problem.

Know the Traffic Patterns of your Meetings

About two years ago the town where I live installed a rather large traffic circle (2 lanes wide), like the one below, to help coordinate traffic flow at one of the busiest intersections in town. This traffic circle sits at the junction of two major arterial roads with a large shopping center on one corner and a college on the opposite corner. Thousands of cars pass through this traffic circle each day and there are periods of time, during rush hour, where navigating this traffic circle resembles a game of frogger. This task is challenging even for someone that understands the one fundamental rule that governs how traffic circles work.

Traffic circles operate on a very simple principle.  In the US, where we drive on the right side of the road, you must yield to any oncoming traffic to your left.  In the picture above which was likely taken in the UK, you must yield to any oncoming traffic to your right but the principle is still very much the same.  As you approach the traffic circle look to see if there are oncoming cars from your left and when the coast is clear you can go.  If you follow this one simple rule you will keep yourself out of harms way and your car out of the body shop.

Impatience, an Accident Waiting to Happen

As simple as this rule is though there are many people who fall victim to the traffic circle and find themselves involved in mostly minor although on the rare occasions major accidents.  The major accidents tend to come about when a combination of speed and a disregard for the fundamental rule of traffic circles are combined.  If you have ever traveled on a traffic circle regularly then you know what I am talking about.  That person, many times jabbering away on their cellphone, who thinks the fundamental rule of traffic circles is the person that gets there first wins.  They approach the traffic circle at a speed that pretty much guarantees they can’t stop in time to avoid oncoming traffic.  They firmly believe that because their front wheels hit the circle first the car that is right on top of them should somehow yield the right of way.  Well you can guess what happens next.

Yield the Right-of-Way

We see a similar situation with collisions on our conference calls.  How many times have you witnessed two participants on a conference call trying to speak at the same time?  I bet if your conference calls are like mine then it happens every single time.  These collisions typically precipitate an awkward back and forth dance where each person simultaneously tries to yield the floor while continuing to step on each other until finally someone interjects forcefully enough to gain some control over the conversational dynamic and get the meeting back on track.  Time and momentum are wasted as everyone is distracted with the collision itself and the efforts to get things back on track.  In extreme cases and much like the driver that approaches the traffic circle at rapid speed we have conference call participants that simply steam roll over everyone and assert their verbal dominance with such force that everyone else is silenced.  Although this might seem like an effective way to resolve conflicts it ends up suppressing valuable contributions.

The Unspoken Rules of the Meeting Space

These collisions that we witness on conference calls rarely if ever happen in a face-to-face meetings where we have the luxury of reading body language and negotiating, in many cases non-verbally, to determine who goes next to avoid collisions.  We have a protocol, even if unspoken, that we use to deconflict simultaneous attempts at speaking.  This protocol is what is desperately lacking in the conference call space.  We need some standard way of allowing participants to register intent, check that the path is clear and then proceed into that metaphorical traffic circle known as the conference bridge.

Establishing Proper Protocol

One great example of a protocol can be found in the English Parliament.  The English Parliament has a rich history of debate with traditions that date back hundreds of years.  One such tradition is how members of the opposition offer what they call points of interest (POI).  The debater on the opposing side will simply stand up and wait to be called on by the speaker and they have up to 15 seconds to offer arguments towards or ask a question to the speaker. This simple, yet highly effective protocol, provides the person with something to say a simple way of:

 

 

1. Signaling intent or desire to contribute
2. Deconflicting who speaks next
3. Signaling to the group that the current speaker is done

 

Clear Conference Congestion with MeetingResult

At MeetingResult we have developed a simple but effective protocol that can be used to avoid collisions during conference calls.  The MeetingResult Conference Call Protocol consists of the following three simple steps:

 

• Step 1 – When the person speaking prior to you indicates that they are done, Introduce yourself to speak by simply saying “This is -Name of Person.  For example I would say “This is Bryan”
• Step 2 – In this step we have to rely on each person that has attempted to introduce themselves to yield if someone spoke up before them.
• Step 3 – The person that introduced themselves first would take the floor and all others would yield.  When they were finished they would say “Thank you, I am done”.  This is a clear signal to everyone that the floor is open again for the next person to introduce themselves.  We highly recommend you agree to restrict individuals to some general timeframe to allow as many people as possible the opportunity to contribute to the meeting.  This time limit can be communicated at the beginning of your meeting when you review the ground rules of the meeting including the MeetingResult Conference Call Protocol.

Dedication and Implementation

Admittedly this protocol will take a little getting use to but it will work if everyone commits to and respects the protocol. The key to achieving this is training.  Everyone who is going to participate on conference calls in your organization must be trained on the protocol. We also recommend reviewing the ground rules at the beginning of each call.  The time spent doing this will more than be recouped by avoiding costly collisions.  The meeting leader can also act as the final word and interject if required to resolve conflicts.

 

If everyone is trained to recognize the protocol then we can all avoid collisions and smooth out the bumps that affect so many of our conference calls.

 

Please leave your comments below and let us know if you have other tactics for dealing with these collisions or if you give our protocol a try we would love to hear how it goes.

 

Find out more about Meetings and Communication.