Picture this: you’re on a call with your dev team, 8 hours ahead in another country. You only have 30 minutes with them to discuss 45 minutes worth of content. Time is tight.
Suddenly, someone new joins, late, and with such strong interference that you either mute the entire call or drop the call and have to dial back in. Ten minutes down the tube and you didn’t even get past introductions.
An all too common scenario, these interruptions are such a frequent part of the remote meeting that we often ignore them as something that just “comes with the territory.”
And although they can be humorous when we look at them from the outside, when you’re leading a call and need to get to business, these seemingly small interruptions can be crushing to your day.
In the US alone, there is an estimated average of 11 million meetings happening each day, 63% of which do not have a pre-planned agenda. And 13 minutes on average of those calls, about 30%, are wasted just in getting things set up. That’s a lot of room for disruptions.
But if you know what’s coming and who to look for, you can stay ahead of the game. Let’s take a look at the most common disruptor personalities in most remote meetings as well as ways to stop the madness before it takes over your next call.
Johnny Join Late
Johnny is usually running from another meeting, always scheduled in rooms across the office, and they generally run over. While it’s perfectly understandable, his entrance includes a need to go again through the call introduction and opening remarks. He is rarely alone, often followed by another Johnny immediately after you’ve finished running through it all again.
Mr. Late Joiner’s twin, Early Drop Earl, is a bit less disruptive than his brother, but we all know that once that first person leaves the party, everyone else starts to follow. That can cut off some important end-of-call details you need to lock down.
Work from Couch Wilma
Not sure why, but this person usually has a herd of very vocal dogs living in her home, and they feel the need to chime in just as poor Wilma is speaking up on the call. Other items usually in Wilma’s home: the cuckoo clock, excessively loud doorbell, and a neighbor mowing the lawn in the middle of the day.
Not to be confused with Cafe Charlie, who can never be too far from a cup of joe at any time. He’ll often be given away by the sound of a steamer and/or sirens of a passing ambulance from the street outside.
Sid Side Conversation
Sid usually is a very busy, and often important, person who has lots of people popping in and out of his office to ask him important questions, but who rarely mutes his line before answering said inquiries.
Nancy Nitpick
Nancy loves to look over the little things that are not of importance and spend half the call pulling apart the font used on a slide when the year’s budget needs to be finalized by end of the call. She has been known to derail many a call, several times.
Quincy Not Queued Up
This gentleman had the last 15 minutes to pull up the deck they knew they would be speaking on but did not and cannot seem to find the file. His laptop often does not have the plug-in installed needed to share, and very often needs to download another update before the new plug-in installation can occur.
However, the clock is ticking and the window created here leaves Sid and Nancy free to run wild.
So what can we do to keep things under control?
It’s simple, you need a remote meetings solution that keeps you constantly in control. With the right tool, you’ll have visibility into not only who’s on and who’s talking, but you’ll be able to keep your guests from becoming unruly participants in
Let’s take a look at some of the capabilities you have while in the driver’s seat on a LoopUp call:
- Customise join/drop notifications and set automated roll call so you know when someone hops on the line
- Always know who’s on, who’s talking
- Mute guests with one click
- Quiet background noise so that you can hear what is being said by guests
- One-click screen sharing. No plugins here, friend.
It’s that simple.
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