Videoconferencing Tip: Slow Down
Slow down. You’re talking too fast for your videoconferencing tools to keep up. Meeting quality when you fire up your webcam to talk to your colleagues is getting better by the minute, but the network is not quite up to shoving all those bits around in real time. We all end up looking a little like Max Headroom. What can you do until everyone on your project team can afford high-end telepresence rigs?
There are a few basic tips for making a videoconference go smoothly out there. And taking steps like using a high quality microphone and a very quiet space to videoconference from are good starting points for keeping the quality high.
But during almost a year of doing all my meetings over a webcam I’ve learned an important lesson: I need to slow my speech rate down. Way down.
It’s incredibly hard for a voluble person to do, but essential. In order to cope with network latency you must take what feels like interminable pauses as you speak and listen. If you don’t, you risk coming across as overly aggressive, cutting other meeting attendees off as they begin to speak, often without realizing that you’re doing it.
Any questions? No? Good. Thanks for a great meeting!
Well, imagine the struggle for a former New Yorker!
“I want people to hear me and learn” is something I keep in mind when I seem to be talking way too slow.
Catherine
Slow down our speech so network latency can catch up?
The chiasmus makes more sense. Catch up the network.
If videoconferencing isn’t there yet… there are more efficient means.
Speaking too fast is the bane of many meetings I attend, whether they’re in-person, via conference call, or over web/video conference. If the info is important enough to say, it’s worth making sure that your audience understands it (much like what Catherine said above). I learned about my own fast-talking the hard way after I relocated to Houston. Semi-shameless plug: my work blog (conferencecallsinfo.blogspot.com) has some basic tips on improving non face-to-face meetings, with more advanced ones coming soon.
Helpful suggestion. Thanks. I use v-cing very rarely, but I’m due for a major one shortly. International partipants make slowtalk even more important. You’ve reminded me of an importnat point.
Seems to me, there’s a need for somewhat different structures that can help according to the goals of the video-conferencing meeting. One structure I like is to agree process requirements by having a process traffic cop who keeps the message traffic flowing, not too slow and not to fast. Like a good traffic cop his one would see the traffic flow is fair. Fair would include ‘turn taking’ . Any one wanting to take the traffic cop analogy further might think about red lights and green lights, and fines for persistent offenders! Best wishes
This is where a good video conference moderator comes in. Videoconferencing companies usually has one available for you but if you prefer to assign your own, you can always do so. What’s important is the flow of the conference is smooth-sailing. And in the words of Tudor above: fine the persistent offenders!
Daily Report, Apr 27
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[...] Alerted by a wordpress hotpost, I found a site dedicated to tips for webworkers. The specific tip was ‘talk more slowly’ . This may appear incredibly trivial. But I will argue that there is a good reason why that doesn’t matter. Here is the tip for webcam conferencing. [...]