Remote Meeting

As very important people in OBG Consulting with very busy schedules, it "helped" to have a remote meeting. Sometimes it is easier to find a time when everyone is available, but not necessarily in the same place than a time that everyone can meet AND a place for everyone to meet.

Introducing....REMOTE MEETINGS!

The beauty is, you can talk to people, coordinate projects and plans, but be in the comfort of your own home, on campus, at Starbucks, or any other convenient (but distraction-free) area.

For our remote meeting, we used conference calling. At our appointed time, we all called in. Unfortunately, Jordan dialed a wrong number and listened to some lovely classical music for 10 minutes before we got him connected to our call. Overall, the remote meeting went smoothly. The line wasn't too fuzzy, we were able to focus and make some decisions regarding our project and pound out the plans for future meetings.

One thing that was a little difficult for me in the conference call is that I am a very visual person. I'd much rather read something than hear something (though a combination of the two is definitely the optimal combination). Because of this, it made it harder to focus on the call, so I had to remove myself from distraction. Additionally, it was hard because I could not see body language. At times, I felt like I was not contributing enough to the group because I was primarily a listener. I always felt like I'd be interrupting another person if I jumped in and started talking, which can seem a lot more rude on the phone than in-person. Also, it is easier to read when people are going to start talking or have something to say based on body language than when people are simply voices on a phone.

Another thing that could be difficult with conference calls could be knowing who is speaking, especially if their voices are similar to each other or if you are less-familiar with the individuals. By this time in the semester, we were all buds, so it was easy to tell who was speaking in the conversation.

It is important to know that remote meetings can be useful, even if I prefer in-person meetings. It creates a new way to meet as a group, especially when trying to accommodate difficult schedules. However, it is also good to know the things that are difficult for me, such as distraction, so that I can be prepared for remote meetings and plan to be in a location with limited or no distractions. While remote meetings definitely have a time and place, they also have some inherent weaknesses, which are good to keep in mind so that they can be remedied as much as possible and I can prepare for the meetings as much as possible.