Communication

Why have a meeting? The answer depends where you're from. We might think the purpose of a meeting is obvious – but many cultures around the world take a very a different view.

The problem with meetings - both phyisical and virtual - isn't so much with the meetings themselves, but in how we have traditionally planned, run and use them.

It has been 20 years since online presentations really began. Yet even now, a dispiritingly high proportion of them aren't very good, and many are just plain awful. But why?

If you read last week's article on preparing for communication emergencies, there was one question left unanswered: what should a team communication plan contain?

Remember last year when a snow storm shut down the US for two days? Or are you already working out how you'll get to work in London during the upcoming Olympics? With a good communication plan, you don't need to worry about either eventuality.

In 2011, the power of collective chat lead to protests in China, the UK, America and in Russia. This year we must work to ensure that the connectivity that created that turbulence becomes a stabiliser for cohesive change.

All of us could use some help in improving the way we interact with others – especially with those we find "difficult". So did you know that by determining just two things about someone you can adapt your style to get better communications?

Many people make an understandable, but very serious mistake when they're leading an online meeting. They save the most important items for last. Here's why saving the best for last works against you.

Virtual worlds haven't exactly set the business world on fire up to now. But could all that be about to change? If virtual worlds stop trying to be cool and show how they can help organizations save money and be more effective, they might just start to catch on.

On average we all tell between two and five lies per day. But we are more likely to lie in writing than we are when communicating face-to-face, via video conferencing or audio chat. So, what has lying got to do with business, and particularly management?

Communication seems to be the cure for everything that ails our teams. So we communicate - a lot. But it's not how often you communicate that really matters, but how well.

Webcams are just like any other tool. When used for the right reasons, they're terrific. When used poorly, you might have wished you were just on the phone. So do you have standards and best practices when using webcams? Just asking.

An unfortunate side-effect of social networks is that they allow opinion to take up as much time and space as verifiable facts. To redress the balance, we need to make fact-finding sexy.

Wayne talks to Marshall Goldsmith about what his work with some of the world's most influential business leaders has taught him about the unique challenges of leading in a virtual workplace.

Here are four ways you can help your meeting participants work better during online meetings to reach your mutual objectives.

Virtual meetings tend to polarize opinion. You either love them or you hate them. But it's not which of the two meeting styles you choose that is important, but opting for the right one to accomplish your objective.

It's hard enough to get your point across in a regular meeting. People don't focus, they don't understand what we're trying to accomplish and it can be frustrating. Over a conference call or webmeeting it can be even harder.

When you're running a virtual meeting, have you ever felt like no one was paying attention or was willing to speak up? It might be that the technology is getting in the way. More likely, you are.

It isn't just Apple devotees who are mourning the passing of Steve Jobs. For many, he was known only as the wizard who wowed their world with films created by Pixar – films in which voice plays a critical part.

If you need your voice to hold up when you're under pressure and resonate with an audience, the first place to start is with your posture. Vocal coach Janet Howd explains more.

If there's one thing that worries people leading webinars and online meetings more than anything else, it's that their audience are busy texting and sending email instead of paying close attention.

Possibly the most useful - nut most under-utilized - tools in the online presenting toolkit are the annotation tools. They take a little practice to master, but the results are well worth the effort.

If it feels like all the social media and online communications managers use is somehow changing us, you're right. So here are 10 tips to make social media work for you instead of letting it have its way with you.

If you want to deliver a compelling web presentation, it needs to consist of more than a running commentary to some PowerPoint slides. Here are some of the ways you can improve the visual component of your webinars and make them far more engaging.

One of the biggest challenges to running an effective online meeting is the feeling that no one is listening on the end of the line. Here are some tips to make virtual meetings better.

Web conferencing and webmeeting tools are about to become a more common part of how you work. How do I know? Because suddenly there's a glut of new products and much more aggressive pricing.

Here are some of the most thought-provoking questions I get asked about running webinars and some answers that will make your online sessions far more effective.

When meeting in person just isn't an option, how do you help a virtual team build relationships, trust and find ways to come together to get work done?

Even good presenters seem to hate using webinar or online presentation tools. But why? And what can you do about it? Here are three ways to get more comfortable with web conferencing.

Asking for what you want from your colleagues or in-house resources isn't easy. And it's even harder when you aren't looking someone in the eye as you push for what you need. So here's how to increase the odds of getting what you want while maintaining great virtual relationships.

There's no doubt that social networking helped to fuel last week's riots in England and turn them into a fatal force. But we must not allow that fact to destroy the over-riding value of social networking as a tool for the common good.

The most common complaint about online meetings is that they are a colossal waste of time. But they shouldn't be. Here are three simple tips for getting a webmeeting off to a great start and ensuring that your time is well-spent.

Even the largest corporations can fall victim to rumors. But how does something that starts out as a rumor become taken as a fact, even if it is completely untrue? A new study sheds light on how the rumor-mill works – and how to put a stop to it.

Today's managers need to be connected - to their teams and organizations, whether they are located, to the outside world and to the technology that makes all this possible. That's a tough call – which is why managers need a little help - and why we're here to provide it.

When there is drama in the workplace, lurking in the background is always a lack of clarity. If you are experiencing the signs of drama and negativity, look at these seven areas to see where you might be giving incongruent messages.

A decade ago, only birds tweeted and pods were full of peas. So if we want to get our ideas across to an audience, it is vital that we keep abreast of changes in language and culture if we don't want to be left on the shelf.

Some of the biggest tragedies in history and literature could have been solved so easily with a tweet or a timely Facebook post. Think Romeo and Juliet, Julius Ceasar, Hamlet – even the Trojan wars – a simple status update could have changed the world.

A new survey has found that fewer than half of employees regularly receive helpful feedback from their line manager and that what feedback they do get doesn't help them to do their jobs any better.

When you are practising to deliver a convincing message, try speaking as if you were on a mobile phone in a noisy area. You will discover that by intending to be heard, you automatically achieve the pitch and volume to connect you to your audience.

Today, many people text more often than they talk on the phone. Among teenagers, around nine out of 10 of all phone communications are now text messages. So what's this got to do with management? As Bob Selden explains, the answer is "rather a lot".

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have made it possible, literally, to finger both performers and onlookers and persuade them to attend an event. This has made Performance Art the means by which anyone of us can deliver a powerful message to a target audience – or even bring about a revolution.

So, you're having a conversation. Everything starts off well. But all of a sudden, the conversation derails, beset by misunderstandings and conflict. Why does that happen? Here are some classic reasons for mis-communication.

The success of the film "The King's Speech" is a powerful reminder of the physical exertion and mental focus involved in articulating joined up thoughts and expressing them as joined up words.

It doesn't matter how well you prepare and deliver a presentation, even the most powerful message will be ruined if you don't bring plan a proper conclusion.

Disagreement and challenge are healthy activities. Without them, teams are denied innovation and progress. But too often, misunderstandings see discussions ending acrimoniously. What we need is a better way to disagree.

Rudyard Kipling observed that "words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind". But if that's true, why are so many presentations dull and uninspiring?

When a company is hit by scandal or disaster, it is easy to forget the effect on employee morale. But the human cost can be very real - and take years to come to a head. So how should organisations plan for such an eventuality?

Sloppy language drives some people insane. But surely it is the very fact that the English language can be used in a sloppy way while still retaining its meaning that makes spoken English so user-friendly.

Patterns of recognition and clear frames of reference are vital elements of a presentation because they build connections between speakers and listeners.

It's understandable that organisations are trying to jump on the social networking bandwagon and an internal blog seems an obvious place to start. But it's easy to get it wrong and end up broadcasting messages that alienate employees rather than resonate with them

Show me one person who received useful feedback from a performance review and I'll show you nine who didn't. In fact, you're probably one of those nine. So here are a few reasons why I think performance reviews are problematic - and what you can do differently.

As somebody who speaks and presents on marketing and customer care to all sorts of businesses at all sorts of events, one thing I see that really separates successful marketeers from those who are less successful is attitudes towards social media and its impact on marketing.

Performing in public isn't natural. It's an extraordinary thing to have to do. So the more extra-ordinarily different you feel as you start to get to grips with this physically demanding task, the better!

Employee attitude surveys that rely heavily on agree/disagree scales can deliver misleading results that lull employers into false sense of security, according to one of the UK's leading surveying experts.

I've often been asked how you make people listen. The simple answer is that you really can't. People must choose to listen; you can't make them do it. But there are things you can do that make listening an easier choice.

The characters an actor plays vanish as soon as the curtain falls. Giving a presentation, however, means having to perform in your own costume, write your own script, use your own accent and then hold your own while being questioned afterwards. That's a tough call!

We use metaphors in every conversation we have. But there may be more to them than we think. Metaphors can often hide deeper feelings and thoughts. If the issue is really important to us, what's behind these metaphors needs to be understood.

With the turn of the annual calendar, many New Year's resolutions include eating a more balanced diet to get in better shape. But why not extend the same analogy into the workplace? Many businesses suffer from either meeting bloat or meeting starvation. What they need is a more balanced diet of meetings. Here's how.

Tiny matters of personal presentation can be enormously important, even at – or perhaps especially at – senior executive levels.

Why do organisations make such an effort to seek out the opinions of those working for them, only to reject them out of hand? Perhaps it is because seeking opinion from the floor is something that undermines the myth of executive authority.