Meetings, Conferencing & Collaboration

Coordinating and managing a successful team meetings in the business place requires planning. 

Team meetings are an essential part of any business or organization as they can facilitate the creation and development of new ideas, and highlight and resolve serious problems within a business.

Web conferencing provides some tools for working with someone to produce or create something.  Conferencing can include steaming tools.

Collaboration is a crucial element to achieve business success.  

Elements of Collaboration

• Awareness

• Motivation

• Self-synchronization when decisions are made

• Participation

• Mediation to middle points

• Reciprocity

• Reflections

• Engagement

Groups 

A group could  be defined as 3 or more individuals who affiliate, interact, or cooperate in a familial, social, or business context.

Relationships

From a developmental viewpoint, groups can be define by relationships in terms of:

• Status

• Power

• Control

• Role

• Function

• Viewpoint

Social media groups are available to solve problems, share specialized skills, talents, experience, or education to find new perspectives to create unique approaches that may have not been found alone.

• Facebook

• LinkedIn

• Twitter & hashtags

Life Cycles

Universal group life cycle phases:  

1. Forming 

2. Storming 

3. Norming 

4. Performing 

5. Adjourning

These life cycles define who, what, when, where, and why.

Through conversations and a sharing, basic human needs should be met:

• Status - feel included

• Affection

• Control

Group Member Roles

• Potential

• New

• Active / full

• Divergent

• Marginal

• Ex-member

Steps to Problem Solving

Frustrated with your business? 

Consider building a personal interest or love for problem solving. 

By this we begin to be empowered to seek the "how" of it instead of getting bogged down with the "why" of it!

1. Define the problem

2. Analyze the problem

3. Establish criteria

4. Consider possible solutions

5. Decide on a solution

6. Implement the solution

7. Follow-up

Tools to Remove Communication Barriers

• WeAndMe - Tools to remove communication barriers and boost connection and engagement

Business and Professional Meetings

Preparation

1. Define a clear purpose statement.

2. Have an agenda.

3. Plan time 

   • Organizational communication & email reminder

     • Awareness of context, environment, interaction

   • State the stage in the life cycle

   • Number of interactions, limit them

   • Emotional points or theme, or for negative news.

Conduct Meeting

1. Introductions 

2. Purpose of meeting

3. Agenda

4. Interview or speech presentation

5. Member

   • Contributions

   • Role and responsibilities (defined before)

6. Follow agenda

   • Transition from one topic to another

7. Conclude with summary, record/communicate minutes

Tools

Audio Only

• Telephone / conference calls

• Web conference

• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication

Collaboration Tools

• We And Me - "connecting people to people and people to ideas"

Social Media 

• Forums

• Networking 

  • Professional - LinkedIn

  • Web tools

    • Facebook

    • Blog

    • Wikis

  • Presentation

    • Cloud tools (Google Drive / Slides, Microsoft One Drive / PowerPoint, Apple iCloud / Keynote)

Online Tools

• Asana Teamwork

• Google Hangouts

• iMeet

• Livestream

• Skype

• UberConference

• Ustream

Tangible Conversation Tools 

• We and Me

Articles / Media

• 5 Tips on Using Google Apps for Meetings

  1. Turn your scheduling into a breeze, 'Find a time'

  2. Attach files to your Calendar

  3. Use Google Hangouts

     • Share notes

     • Share whiteboard

     • Shared Docs, Slides

     • Text chat

     • Desktop screen sharing

     • Video streaming

  4. Follow up with shared documents

  5. Calendar resources

• How to survive 8 straight hours of meetings

• Marketing Strategies Today: When do I use Google Hangouts and YouTube Live?

• 8 ways to improve your conference with Google tools

• 5 Ways for Small Businesses to Save on Tech and Communication

• Skype vs. Tango vs. Google Hangouts Free Download – Taking a Closer Look at Video Conferencing Apps

• Web conference tips

  1. Presentation to the point

  2. 'Go-to person' who is the central focus

  3. Share agenda with attendees

  4. Rehearse and test

  5. Understand the webinar technology 

• The Top 5 Skills That Young (And All) Communicators Should Develop

  1. Analytics

  2. Visuals

  3. Coding

  4. Social

  5. Strategy

• Working Remotely? Try These 27 Tools for Better Communication, Collaboration & Organization

• 10 ways to make your next meeting more productive

• Alison Course - Business Communication - Managing Successful Team Meetings

• 20 collaboration tools for small businesses

Also See 

• Business Phone

• Google Groups

• Slack

• WeAnd.Me

• Webinars