Everyone has been living a short online life for a long time – We work on the net, meet friends, relax, study. People are beginning to develop digital etiquette. And if we prepare for personal meetings, then the online format is relaxing. We will talk about attending online meetings with your mobile phone not to spoil relationships with colleagues.
Make friends with the programs and take care of the interlocutors
Online meetings have many subtleties. They should be foreseen:
- schedule an online appointment in advance and send an invitation link to call the interlocutor. If the meeting is, for example, in a Google calendar, attach a link to it so as not to send it to everyone separately;
- if you know the program in which the meeting will be, study it in advance to show the screen, open a chat and record the conversation. Check whether you need to register: if you do it at the last moment, you can be very late or even disrupt the meeting;
- warn interlocutors if registration is required, and explain in advance how to connect to a video conference;
- prepare materials for showing, remove unnecessary things from the desktop, mute notifications on the phone and computer;
- inform the participants at the beginning of the conversation about the time limit for the meeting. Agree on actions when the conversation is interrupted. Not everyone knows that a call can end on its own – some will not figure out what to do next.
If it seems that these are all small things – try to schedule a meeting for ten people and not send an invitation to it in advance. Five minutes before the session, you will be inundated with the question “Where to connect?”
Find a quiet place and choose a calm background
The quieter your surroundings, the better you hear, and the better you understand your words. Always use headphones and ask other people about it. Otherwise, you will hear your voice in someone else’s speakers. If you call up often, noise-canceling headphones will help out.
If there is a solid wall behind and a minimum of details, no one is distracted by moving objects and does not look excessive. When this is not possible, use backgrounds in software: see how to customize them in Zoom or blur the background in Skype. Please choose such a light so that your face looks natural – it doesn’t hide in the semi-darkness and isn’t overexposed.
Remember the goal
Agree in advance who is leading the meeting, summarizes the interim results, says further steps, and fixes the agreements. Be attentive to the interlocutors – this is a universal rule for all sessions, but the online format by phone has its subtleties:
Look into the camera lens, and not just at the images of the interlocutors, creates the feeling of direct eye contact, which is so lacking in the online format. Try it; it’s worth it. We do not recommend connecting to a meeting on the way, during a meal, or without a video. However, much depends on the context – with whom and on what issues you are calling. If you want to deviate from the usual “office” format – check in advance if it is convenient for everyone. Some people are only happy to call at breakfast or in the park, but it will be a sign of disrespect for others.
Golden Rule
The microphone is muted for all speakers except one or two. Pay attention to the hotkeys for services. For example, in Zoom, to insert a few words into a discussion, you do not need to turn off Silent mode but hold down the space bar during a conversation. It is also the only popular application that offers remote interpreting.
Before the meeting, learn about other keyboard shortcuts for scaling and their usefulness for Skype. If someone makes a noise, rustles, fakes, squeaks – tell us about it. Most likely, the person does not realize that he has become a source of interference: this way, you will help to solve the problem at the moment and not accumulate irritation over a long distance.
Meeting online with your mobile phone is the same as communicating in reality. Here are the same rules: foresee everything, be on time, respect the interlocutor, do not keep silent, and do not make noise. Be polite and try to focus on the result.
