When you think of conference calls, what comes to the front of your mind? Probably a telephone call to a virtual room of sorts where you can interact with the disembodied voices of your coworkers, clients, or friends, which is pretty much what a conference call is. Millions of people use conference calls this way because it's straight forward, simple, and effective. How can we build upon this good foundation?
Now, say we have two people discussing important things. Normally, this would take place over a telephone call and normally this works fine. What if you came across a point in the conversation that required the input of someone else? Normally, you would put your conversation on hold and call the other person, send them an email, or send for them. The flow of the meeting is broken and time is wasted.
Let's look at that virtual room again. If it was a real room, there would be you of course, and there would be the other person. Now, if you need that third person's input, you get them into the room. In a real room, you might even speakerphone their voice and have a real/virtual conference. However you do it, you bring them into your meeting.
Outside the box thinking here, but what if you began your two person conversation with a conference call rather than a telephone call? When you encountered the need for the third person's input, you could simply out-dial their number and bring them into the virtual room. What happens then once the three of you have come up with a game plan? It would probably need to be disseminated to the people it effects. Instead of sending out an email for a future meeting, you could invite them into the conference call. That way, they will be able to receive their instructions by the architects of the plan that are, incidentally, right there to answer questions and make changes while the plan is still fresh in their minds.
While that may seem a bit more complicated than usual, think of how a situation like that usually goes: so much time wasted, compounded by numerous opportunities for miscommunications.
