Coference calls.. Make them efficient!

Having just finished a huge implementation for one of my clients and reflecting on the challenges faced, I decided to write this post on communication etiquette on teleconferences. 

Given most of the big technology companies are using offshore teams for support and product development services, it is very likely that most troubleshooting sessions involve people from multiple locations (including offshore teams) to convene on a teleconference call.  Following some basic teleconference communication etiquette will make these conference calls more productive and efficient:

• Beginning of the call
• Initiate the conference call from a land line, do not initiate the call from a mobile phone.  This will help avoid unintentional disconnections and interruptions.  
• Ensure that the problem statement was clearly understood in the beginning of the call so everyone knows what they are trying to solve. 
• Take the roll call by team and ensure that you know which team each participant is representing.  
• Ask participants to put their phones on mute if they are not talking. Also make sure people know they can't put the call on hold as it will start playing hold music and disturb the entire conversation.  
• During the call
• Stay on topic.  It's very easy to go on tangents when you have 30 people on the call.  If you are the facilitator, be prepared to cut-off conversations that are not directly related to the problem statement.  
• Its a good practice to encourage people to announce their name and the team they are representing when making their comments/statements. (Ex: This is Murali from PwC, I think....).  Most of the times people don't recognize who is talking and hesitate to ask. 
• Some people can be very lengthy in their comments/statements and can loose the attention of other participants.  While you can't change people's communication style on the fly, try to synthesize and restate them so everyone understands the gist of those long winded comments/statements.
• People can get too technical and use too much jargon and loose some audience.  Try to keep a check on that and bring them back to regular English so everyone can follow along. 
• Do not let people talk over each other. If you notice someone trying to hijack the discussion, its OK to call it out (politely of course) to ensure that the collective team goal is not jeopardized. 
• Try to bridge the gap between various participants knowledge level and guide the conversation so everyone can follow and contribute to problem resolution.  
• If the call happens to continue for many hours, recap/announce the summary status at regular intervals so people that might have joined new can understand where the team is. 
• End of the call
• Recap the summary of the discussion and make sure the team collectively agrees with the summary. 
• Recap the action items and assign ownership and set expectations on response timelines.
• Most importantly thank people for their contributions and participation.  Try to recognize the teamwork instead of individual praise.  

These are some of the things that I could think of to make these conference calls more efficient.  I welcome your comments and other suggestions you might have on this topic.  Thank you!

What's your say-do ratio?

In a recent conversation with someone I respect very much, we stumbled across the concept of  "Say-Do ratio". As the phrase itself indicates it is the ratio of the number of things said by a person or a company to the number of things that they have actually done.  Ideally your say-do ratio is 1:1 meaning you have done everything that you said you would do.  

Reflecting on this thought for a little bit, I felt this is a very impactful concept and one worth sharing with my friends.  This can be applied all the way from our personal interactions with our family and friends to numerous professional interactions we have on a daily basis.  When you demonstrate in your everyday interactions that people can count on what you say and that once you say something that they can consider it done, the amount of trust you will build in those interactions will be enormous. And this trust leads to a better/stronger relationships which leads to better outcomes.

While I do not think its important to measure our personal say-do ratio, being cognizant about this concept and striving to hit 100% will help us all become better individuals. 

Play within your limitations

This evening I was playing tennis with my friends and experienced something very inspirational that I would like to share.  We were just hitting as we were short of a player. Someone noticed that from the courts on the other side and offered to join us to make it four.  As I see him come closer, he is a very elderly man (may I say an old man and I don't intend any disrespect).  We introduced ourselves and this man started playing with us.  

As he started playing, he changed the tempo of the entire game.  He has fantastic reflexes and comes on to the net all the time.  He has great movement and reach on the court and takes advantage of it.  He didn't have any great tennis shots in him but he knows exactly how to play and win a point.  I started feeling little frustrated and as we took the first break after he joined I started a conversation with him.  Learned that he is an Indian visiting his son here in U.S.   He is 74 year old and retired.  He was a principal of an Engineering college before he retired.  It was just amazing to see this man so healthy, happy, and eager to play.  More than that, what I realized in the conversation is that he knew exactly what his limitations are and what he is good at.  He knows how to win a point by still playing withing his limitations.  He admits that he doesn't have a range of shots but I felt he could easily win a match against me.  

As I started reflecting on that encounter, couple of things stuck out to me.  Know your strengths and limitations and play within your limitations.  And did I say, age is all in your head and not really a function of how old you are... I sure learned something new from this gentleman today.  Thank you!

Make it happen!

It feels so good to make things happen, and I am sure everyone experienced that feeling of triumph when they achieved something big.  Imagine a life where you can make anything happen that you are set on to do.  Wouldn't it be so fulfilling and rewarding, isn't that where we all want to be? I am sure the answer to that is a resounding yes.  So, let's see how we can make things happen.  

Shiv Khera wrote in one of his famous books that most people fail not because of lack of ability or intelligence but because of lack of desire, direction, dedication, and discipline.  He's 100% correct.  

Desire is the sense of longing and hope to make something happen. The stronger the desire the better are the chances of being successful.  Once you have a strong desire to make something happen, you need to choose your direction on how to get there. Your knowledge, experiences, education, intelligence, and convictions shape your direction on reaching your goals.  It is very important to choose a direction that is ethical, moral, and efficient.  Once you have the desire to make things happen and choose your direction, the next stage is to be dedicated to what you are set on to achieve.  Dedication is the act of binding yourself intellectually and emotionally to the direction you chose.  This is the stage where your strength of desire will be tested and your direction may be challenged but as long as you are convinced that you are doing the right thing and you are heading in the right direction, do not deviate.  I believe lack of dedication is the single most reason why people can't make things happen.  Once you are dedicated to achieving your goal, be disciplined to make it happen.  Discipline is the systematic way in which you work towards achieving your goals.  It is something you train yourself to reach your goals.  With these four key qualities, you can achieve anything you are set on to do.  

Make it happen!  Try this with something that you have been trying to make happen but couldn't reach there.  If you couldn't reach there again, inspect what went wrong in this framework and try it again.  You can make it happen!

Path to Excellence!

Everyone wants to get better at what they do day after day and that strive to do better each day than the last is "Excellence". 

Someone said this to me few years back and it stuck with me all along and had a great influence on how I conducted myself through out my career.  But I didn't have a reference framework in mind on how to achieve it until I came across an HBR article couple of years back.  Reading that article, it was clear to me that Excellence is a long journey and we really need to make it a habit to get better.  So, I put this slide together that synthesizes how to get on the path to excellence and thought it would be useful for others to have it handy.  Here it is...

The principle is pretty simple and is part of the continuous improvement framework and when combined with personal introspective aspect will make it a powerful tool to get on a "Path to Excellence".