Conference calls are often used to provide participants with up-to-date information.
Find out here how to successfully pass on information:
- What is information transfer?
- How is information communicated?
- Advantages of the conference call: Simultaneity
- Allow feedback
- Create feedback islands
- Use feedback to ensure understanding
What is information transfer?
When conveying information, a sender transmits knowledge or data to one or more recipients. The sender has information that should be new to the recipients.
If the information is successful, the recipient has the new knowledge.
For example, the sales department presents new sales figures or a sales representative describes the situation on site.
How is information transmitted?
Information can be transmitted in different ways. Here we compare a telephone conference with an e-mail. Both methods are useful if the sender and recipient are not in the same place.
An important difference lies in the way the language is used:
- The e-mail is written. The content is transported by visible patterns(letters).
- People speak in the conference call. The utterances are transmitted with sounds(sound waves).
This fundamental difference shows that writing generally lasts longer (“He who writes, stays.”) This durability makes it possible to communicate across temporal distances.
- With an e-mail, the sender and recipient do not even have to be involved at the same time(asynchronous communication).
- On the other hand, simultaneous participation is a prerequisite for a telephone conference(synchronous communication).
Advantage of the conference call: Simultaneity
You are familiar with this simultaneity from face-to-face conversations and one-to-one telephone calls. Once your information has reached the listener, the goal of conveying information has been achieved.
With simultaneous communication, you receive feedback from the listener more easily and directly. Even small acoustic signals, such as a short “Yes.”, “Mhm.” or “Aha!” are often enough. This way you can be sure that what you have said has been heard: success monitoring in real time.
This does not work with written communication such as e-mail.
Allow feedback in conferences
Allow spontaneous feedback from your participants. Give your audience explicit permission to ask questions and make comments.
For example like this:
“Please interrupt me directly,
if something is unclear to you or if you have any comments.
This helps me to incorporate your experience.”
Make sure that the technical requirements are met: The subscribers are audible. Otherwise, use the web control or telephone keypad to make the participants audible.
At larger conferences, it is common for the moderator to mute the participants who are listening. This avoids disturbing noises. However, you can also receive feedback at conferences with many participants.
If no questions are asked , ask your participants questions!
Have you learned anything new?
Which topic were you particularly interested in?
Have you ever experienced something similar?
How could this information be applied in practice?
Even if you don’t ask exactly whether everyone has understood everything, you will get an answer. For example, if the participants only mention minor points, you have not been able to emphasize the important points clearly enough.
Feedback islands help with large telcos!
A feedback island is a phase in the conference in which feedback is given. This phase is introduced and ended by the moderator. Outside of the feedback islands, the moderator has sole attention.
After a topic is completed, open the participants’ microphones and allow questions. You and your participants enter the feedback island!
This puts you in control.
Leave the feedback island again as soon as you have received sufficient feedback. Close the microphones and pick up the participants’ messages. Now sail on with a corrected course.
Use feedback to ensure understanding
Through the feedback, you can assess the understanding of your participants. In the next step, you can optimize success. You cannot do this with a mailing:
- Emphasize important aspects or information that did not go down well with your listeners.
- Summarize the important points. It helps participants to identify the essentials.
- Provide context. Context often helps to understand the information. You can talk about your professional background. Or you can explain the story behind the information presented.
- Clarify misunderstandings politely. If feedback gives the impression of being incorrect, address this.
- Add information. If you have assumed something to be known that your conversation partners were not aware of, complete it.
- Build on the knowledge of your audience. Only repeat known information if you have a reason for doing so.