Advice and discussion on meeting protocols

From BeSTGRID

[edit] Judy Paterson

• We talked after the link up about how the sound distortion and delay is more difficult to accommodate than the visual which we really didn’t find a problem.

• It is useful to have the displays on the screen in the correct relationship – if not when people look at each other it appears they are looking away which feels a bit odd.

• In terms of protocols it feels quite important to try to generate a feeling of being around a table as opposed to opposite each other.

• Dealing with sound delay and realising when one person has finished talking makes one aware of some of the important subtle ways the floor gets shared and of how one enters discussions in face-to-face interactions.
• There is a feeling of relief when you see and hear that your point of view has been received and appears to have been valued.

• Humour across the ether is important as an indicator of connections.

• This raises another question of how people with very different cultural styles from each other would weather the medium. It seems to me to be a polite form of communication.

• In terms of agenda setting – in the big sense – clearly whoever chooses the initial stimulus sets the discussion in motion.

• It feels as if discussion is clearly focussed in this medium which may well be a good thing.

• I can also see that sharing an agenda and key concerns and questions ahead of time will aid communication.