Videoconferencing vs Multitasking
(cc) Flickr/Thomas Hawk
Last night one of my MBA students (Thanks, Ethan) asked whether including videoconferencing would make off-site meeting participants pay more attention. The basic idea is that if we can see you, then you’ll be forced to pay attention — no more answering email or playing video games during the call. This is a common question that comes up whenever I’m talking about strategies for managing in virtual settings. Leads me to believe that there is a perception, and perhaps a reality, that off-site participants aren’t pulling their weight on conference calls.
As always, the decision we make needs to consider the people involved, the process, and the technology itself. The decision to use video conferencing is a complex one from the start given the variety across these three dimensions:
- People: Participants’ varying technical expertise, their expertise at presenting in front of a camera, their workload at the moment, their role on the team, their background with the other participants.
- Process: What’s the goal of this meeting? Is it a decision making task where everyone needs to be contributing and evaluating alternatives, or is it more informational (and perhaps shouldn’t be held as meeting in the first place). Are there physical objects that need to be shown for the meeting to meet its goals? Will the video be useful as a resource in the future?
- Technology: What tools do we have at our disposal? Many laptops now come with cameras at the top of the screen, but is the quality good enough (and will the bandwidth be good enough) to not be a distraction? Does everyone who will be speaking have a high quality microphone?
My answer to the question of whether videoconferencing stops multitasking is “no.” Technology rarely has a unilateral effect. I can easily look like I’m paying attention on video and still look at my email. (How to: Make sure the material you are reading is up near where your camera is – pull the email window to the area of the screen where your camera is located – listen along and nod from time to time.) The bigger question is whether you need the full attention of all participants at all times, and what part of the process is breaking down if you aren’t getting attention when you need it. Similar to the suggestions regarding laptops in face-to-face meetings — explicitly discuss the issues (if you can get their attention…), come to an agreement about the norms, and occasionally ask whether or not the level of engagement is where it needs to be. More background on perceptions of multitasking success.
Questions: Do you behave differently when the video is turned on? Do you think it improves the overall meeting? Comments, as always, appreciated.
3 Responses
February 9th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I guess at some point we have to assume the people we work with are adult and competent to decide for themselves what the most productive use of their time is. I’d hate for a sales person to miss a deal because she was forced to be inert during another mind-numbing corporate meeting when she should have been answering a critical question in a complex RFP… But I must admit that I do grit my teeth when people are answering email during an in-person meeting and obviously not listening to what is going on.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:18 am
U have to describe in a very good way how we manage multitasking during video conferencing, keep sharing such knowledge it helps me alot, thanks buddy..
June 17th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
[...] people on the call as if they were there with you. Big “a ha!” for me is that this is yet another reason to avoid what I call casual videoconferencing. Sure, if you have access to Telepresence or Halo, [...]