Making Collaboration WorkMaking Collaboration Work

Collaborating means meetings, and being a productive meeting participant is about honing your communication skills.

To be a good collaborator you need to be a good communicator. Collaboration frequently takes place with people we know, which can lead to the assumption that we will fully understand the other party during a conference. When using conferencing technology, do not depend on the technology to compensate for poor communications skills. The same skills that work well in a face-to-face meeting should be applied to the audio/video conference.

There is an interesting quote from "8 Secrets of Great Communicators" by Dr. Travis Bradberry: "When it comes to communication [collaboration], we all tend to think we're pretty good at it. Truth is, even those of us who are good communicators aren't nearly as good as we think we are. This overestimation of our ability to communicate is magnified when interacting with people we know well."

Researchers at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business put this theory to the test, and what they discovered is startling. In the study, researchers paired subjects with people they knew well and then again with people they'd never met. The researchers discovered that people who knew each other well understood each other no better than people who'd just met! Even worse, participants frequently overestimated their ability to communicate, and this was more pronounced with people they knew well."

Even if you know another person well, it does not mean they will communicate well in the next meeting. It also does not mean that your understanding is as effective as another person's. I once had an employee who was good at his job, but would jump around when talking. I could follow his train of thought well enough, but his persistent jumping annoyed others and prevented the understanding he desired. I had to translate for everybody else.

In Dr. Bradberry's article, he recommended strategies to follow when communicating. I have modified them to relate to audio/video conferencing:

You may not be consciously aware of these strategies during the conference. Don't try to implement them all at once. These strategies are a behavior change. Try the easiest two in the next conference. Implement them again until they are a habit, then add two more. Eventually your conferences will be shorter, more productive, and others will want to attend rather than avoid the conference.

My previous blogs on collaboration and conferencing include How Good Meetings Go Bad, Getting Social with Video, Boosting Conference Room Sound Quality, Phases to Pervasive Collaboration, Better Audio Conferences, and Collaboration is Not Automatic.

Learn more about UC&C at Enterprise Connect 2016, March 7 to 10, in Orlando, Fla. View the Unified Communications and Collaboration track sessions; register now using the code NJPOST to receive $200 off the current conference price.