Are you controlling your message by controlling the medium? We were on a teleconference recently when, during a lull, everyone on the call was treated to the loud and up-close sound of a toilet flushing. (No one stepped forward to take credit.) We were on a big video conference in which one of the participants shared his screen with the meeting organizer—and after he had finished talking, soon forgot that he was still sharing his screen with everyone in the meeting. So we all saw him pop open a new browser window, navigate to his favorite e-commerce site, and go shopping, loading up his cart with goodies, while the meeting organizer (a highly-paid consultant, not a client) did her best to carry on with the agenda. No, we don’t gravitate toward groups inclined toward egregious violations of netiquette; these two stories are outliers. And while these Dilbert-like anecdotes underscore the pitfalls of various collaboration tools, we’d prefer to, as that old WW II song exhorted, accentuate the positive. The basic hierarchy Before we get into the pros and cons of each modality—and how to choose the best for your purposes—let’s just list them and tag them with some brief definitions, so we’re all on the same page:
Which one sells best? “Sells”? Yes. In any business communication, you’re always selling: Your proposal. Your ideas. Your qualifications. Your enthusiasm. But you don’t always need to sell as much, or with same amount of urgency. Meaning, choose the medium that best suits your agenda whenever possible. Seen in that light, it’s pretty easy to discern the hierarchy:
When do you use a shortcut? There are times when you can’t get on the road (or off it) for an in-person meeting. There are times when you’ve got a cold you don’t want to share with others. This is when the word hierarchy (a system of ranking according to importance) comes to your rescue: Simply move down the scale the fewest steps you can to avoid shortchanging yourself. And if last night’s overindulgent dinner forces you to join the call from the can, don’t forget to mute your mic!
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