Discover how to get the most out of your virtual meetings with our best practice guide. Silos are counterproductive, everyone knows that but how do you break them down, scrap them and deliver on your business goals? The answer? Dynamic dialogue. Using video conferencing and virtual meetings to ensure cross departmental collaboration and proactive communication. Silos are bad for business, they create departmental divides and prevents the organisation from lining up to face the customer.To operate as a coherent whole, an organisation needs to communicate and feel like one. One of the means open to companies wanting to tear these silos down is video conferencing, or virtual meetings. These add an extra closeness to otherwise sterile voice-only contacts resulting in an increasingly contented and engaged workforce and even boosting the reach of your marketing campaigns. There are techniques you can use to ensure your video calls are productive and these can be used as virtual meeting best practices.

1. Scrap
the silo:
Deliver with
dynamic dialogue

2. Silos are bad for business, they create departmental
divides and prevents the organisation from lining
up to face the customer.To operate as a coherent
whole, an organisation needs to communicate and
feel like one.
One of the means open to companies wanting to tear these silos down is video
conferencing, or virtual meetings. These add an extra closeness to otherwise
sterile voice-only contacts resulting in an increasingly contented and engaged
workforce and even boosting the reach of your marketing campaigns. There are
techniques you can use to ensure your video calls are productive and these can
be used as virtual meeting best practices.

3. Planning an
agenda

4. 70%of people would
rather have a video
conference than travel
to a meeting.
But before embracing this means of communication it is essential you
first send an agenda via email.

5. Virtual meetings are shorter than the
face to face variety so agenda-setting
and other pre-meeting preparation is very
important. Every second has to count. A
comprehensive list of what is going to
happen will enable you to cut to the chase.

6. Ensuring camera
quality

7. Try to avoid using the
camera that came with
your laptop.
It’s fine for keeping up with family and
friends and that’s what it was designed
for. But a more focused conversation
going multiple ways should ideally happen
with a better quality, higher resolution
camera and good sound quality.

8. For longer virtual meetings, professional video
conferencing suites are available.
If you’re using a new set-up or working with your own equipment remotely, have a practice
first. The level of your microphone and the angle of your camera will all affect your ability to
communicate effectively.

9. Using UC options

10. Aim to use a comprehensive suite of unified communications options. A scheduled video call
using isolated elements is one thing and can be very productive.
63%of companies have at
least one UC app in
the cloud, with web
conferencing as the
most widely adopted
product.

11. An alternative is to start a virtual meeting using IM;
add voice if required for additional collaboration or
video if you want full engagement.
Different types of collaboration tools can be used depending upon the requirement.

12. Encourage
participation

13. Encourage people
to participate.
The reluctant quiet one in the
corner in your regular meetings?
They will be more likely to take
part as it can be even easier to
hide on a conference call, but that
isn’t the case with video.

14. Set ground rules

15. Allow everyone an
opportunity to speak
but keep to the agenda
- engagement will
dwindle if the meeting
runs for too long.
If you’ve taken the advice about
upgrading your camera and sound, assume
others won’t – speak clearly to allow
for their poor speakers or headset and
encourage others to do so.

16. Speaking clearly might take some
getting used to and even a little
training if people aren’t used to
speaking exaggeratedly clearly.
Take full advantage of all the collaboration tools and
techniques available to keep the team engaged.

17. The result will be an organisation with all
the tools and best practices available for
cross departmental collaboration.
The large benefit of video conferencing and virtual meets is that
team members or partners across time zones can be brought
together using any device, from any location. It’s possible to record
the proceedings in full and replay it or put it into an ongoing
knowledge base to share with colleagues both current and in future.
Now watch those silos start to break down.

18. Takeaways:
Establish a strict agenda
to make the most of the
time you have.
Ensure that everyone has
accessibility and is aware
of the ground rules of
communication.
Make use of Unified
Communications to
add any extra layer of
successful interaction.

19. Discover how to stay informed and involved
through technology by downloading:
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Generating a collaborative
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innovation in your enterpriseThe connected business:
Informed and involved
deadline day decisions
The connected business:
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Flexible
Sources:
http://blog.arkadin.com/en/now-you-see-me-now-you-see-me-the-ten-hidden-advantages-of-web-and-video-conferencing-in-creating-a-contented-workforce/
http://blog.arkadin.com/en/static-budget-mobile-marketing-improving-your-marketing-campaign-without-a-bigger-budget/
http://blog.pgi.com/2014/07/10-stats-video-conferencing/
http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/feature/Top-10-UCC-news-highlights-reveal-2015-trends
https://www.bluejeans.com/video-collaboration/video-conferencing-benefits-to-business