Teleseminars

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Teleseminars are becoming more familiar every day, probably driven by our hectic schedules and the major inconveniences and time sinks of air travel. You can use teleseminars as cost-effective training vehicles, of course, but they can do so much more.

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nlike most of the words in modern workplace jargon, Google hasn't yet found a definition for teleseminar (check with Google). Fortunately, most of us know what a teleseminar is: a seminar or class convened over a video or audio communications link, usually telephone. Teleseminars are more effective for some topics than for others, but when they do work, the cost savings compared to face-to-face seminars are significant.

Available topics

Most topics are possible in the teleseminar format. Some topics do work better than others, but because the costs are so low, the cost-effectiveness tradeoff is almost always favorable.

To find what's best for your situation, call me for a short conversation. Let's work out together what issues are most pressing and see whether a teleseminar can help resolve some of them.

Here's a sampling of topics I regularly present:

• Organizational Politics
• Managing Global and Distributed Teams
• How to Say No to Power
• Interpersonal Communications
• Technical Conflict Workshop
• Who's Doing Your Job?
• Advanced Project Management
• Spreadsheet Models for Managers
• Statistical Methods for HR Professionals Using Microsoft Excel
• Spreadsheet Clinic
• Technical Emergency Management Planning Workshop
• Technical Leadership Development Workshop

How my teleseminars work

By choice, my teleseminars are decidedly low-tech. I'm an engineer by training, and I love technology even more than the next guy, but I've found that with all the distractions that can occur during a teleseminar, keeping technology to a minimum is an advantage. That's why I typically use a simple audio connection — usually a bridge line. If accompanying documentation is required — a PowerPoint slide set, for example — I make that available for download in advance. We keep everyone on the same page by calling out page numbers. Simple. No software to buy, no compatibility issues to be concerned with.

For some events, I'll provide a reading or discussion assignment in advance, or other pre-work. These materials are available to attendees through a private portion of this Web site. And for some events, I might assign homework afterwards. Depending on the specific arrangement, the attendees might discuss their homework with each other afterwards, or with me through email if that's what we agree to.

Why sponsor a teleseminar?

When you consider whether to provide training and education through one or more of my teleseminars, your main goal is to advance the capabilities of the people who attend. But you want to do that in a way that uses your organization's resources wisely. So let's look at what situations are best suited to a teleseminar.

Even though your organization pays fees to seminar leaders, educators and trainers, that fee is the smallest portion of your overall costs. Most of the cost is the time your employees spend preparing for and attending training, and then later incorporating what they learn into their everyday actions. A further cost source is the delay of ongoing activity while attendees are in training. When attendees have to travel off-site, there are additional travel expenses.

Teleseminars limit most of these costs. Attendees don't have to travel, and neither do I. Your costs in attendee time are contained, and you don't have to pay my travel expenses either. The characteristics of situations that are best suited for the teleseminar format are:

• Dispersed organization in which many attendees would have to travel to attend a face-to-face training
• Topics that don't require face-to-face demonstrations
• Attendee population under pressure to complete existing commitments
• Highly paid attendees or attendees whose time is essential to forward progress in critical existing assignments

Design options

Accompanying the teleseminar are several options that can help you achieve organizational goals. I can provide:

A resource guides for further reading

For examples of some available resources, check out my links collection.

A self-assessment

This is a little survey people can take that, at the end, rates them according to the need for further study or practice, and provides targeted resources.

Anonymous surveys

We can survey the attendees anonymously to surface issues and concerns.

Targeted pre-work

We could pose a case study for people to consider, and ask them for solutions to common problems attendees face. Then, in live discussion, we can compare strengths and weaknesses of the various proposals.

Managing risks

There are a few risks. First, some attendees continue with "real work" while the teleseminar is underway. When they do, they can't really learn, and this undermines the purpose of the teleseminar. Second, because they aren't really concentrating on their work, they experience higher error rates than are typical. Some of these errors can be costly. Third, some attendees let their attentions wander to games, Web surfing, and other personal matters. They don't learn either, but at least they aren't making errors.

Some organizations have regular "Lunch 'n Learns" or "Brown Bags." This format might work for in-person seminars and training, but for teleseminars, it's problematic. When we combine the teleseminar with food, then in addition to all the other distractions, the teleseminar presenter must compete with the food, not only during its consumption, but with the chemical effects afterwards. This can be troublesome, especially if the menu includes items with significant sugar content: soft drinks, cookies, brownies, and other sweets.

To manage all these risks, I restrict the duration of teleseminar sessions to 60 minutes. That's quite enough time to be on the phone at one sitting. Second, I recommend that attendees gather in conference rooms. This takes them away from their desks, and inhibits many from surfing the Web or processing email. And I ask that, when my teleseminars are conducted close to lunch time, attendees have time to eat first, plus a fifteen-minute break. So, for instance, you could serve lunch from Noon to 12:30, allow a fifteen minute break, and begin the seminar at 12:45. I might even join you for lunch.