DON'T FEAR THE CONF CALL!

DON’T FEAR THE CONF-CALL

Many of my clients tell me that while they feel relatively comfortable talking to an international correspondent that they can see, communication is much harder without the non-verbal communication. Given that 90% of our message is transmitted by a combination of para- and non-verbal communication (this includes body language, intonation etc), this difficulty seems well grounded.

Nowadays, when more and more companies have partners, suppliers or customers in other countries, the phone exchanges are often replaced by the conference call; and this can raise a whole new series of fears. Regular comments I receive include:

• they speak too quickly for me to understand
• if I want to say something I react too slowly
• I’m not sure what’s been agreed at the end!
• I’m sure some people deliberately use complex structures and expressions!

As a result, I was not too surprised to read an article by Benjamin Fabre on the Cadre Emploi website (http://www.cadremploi.fr/editorial/conseils/conseils-carriere/detail/article/fyi-comment-gerer-la-torture-de-la-conf-call-en-anglais.html#reagir) highlighting the difficulties faced by employees in France when faced with the “torture” of the conference call with colleagues in the USA.

Fabre takes a rather light-hearted approach, perhaps to better convey his serious message, and amongst other things he focuses on the way Americans can sometimes speak very quickly due to their “natural enthusiasm”, the need to retain our credibility and the importance of checking what has been agreed.

I don’t agree with him, however, when he says “Pretend you have understood” or use a few key phrased, learnt off by heart such as “it’s raining cats and dogs”. Furthermore, I find him quite dismissive of footballer Franck Ribery’s ability to master a foreign language.

When working with a client who has expressed their fear of conference calls, I find it important to focus on my regular jargon: CCCP, ANVE and QRV.

In other words, when you speak, you should be clear, coherent and credible, there is no need to strive for perfection.

If you have a slight doubt about something, don’t let it pass. The business world is full of failures that can often be tracked down to a series of minor misunderstandings that that were overlooked and got out of hand. The Mars Climate Orbiter and the Laufenburg Bridge being two of the more extravagant that spring to mind. In short, Assume Nothing – Verify Everything.

And to do that, it is essential to learn how to interrupt politely, ask a question, reformulate what you think has been said in order to validate the message.

Although this may take a few minutes, it’s far better to “lose” the time in a meeting and avoid a misunderstanding than to let it pass and lose even more time in damage limitation afterwards…not to mention losing credibility, the risk of losing customers and partners. I’m sure those German engineers in Laufenburg regret not checking their calculations!

Indeed, I still don’t understand why the facilitators of conference calls don’t organize mini-recaps every 15 minutes or so in order to make sure that all the participants, regardless of their English levels, have understood the main points of the exchanges and agree with the decisions taken. And why not create a series of simple protocols for all participants to respect so as to reach the global objective of exchanging pertinent information in order to take the right decisions.

After all, nobody benefits from participating in a second conference call in order to clean up the mess left by the first…!