It’s interesting how many maritime idioms have made their way into the world of business. Terms such as “righting the ship” are vivid and attention catching ways to convey common concepts. In fact, the term “all hands” comes from the term used by the officer of the deck calling all hands (sailors) to man the pumps or undertake other vital work. In the case of an all hands video meeting, you’re dealing with a large number of people in a short period of time, and need to do it in the most efficient and efficacious way possible.
Chain of Command
Just as with a ship at sea, your organization needs to have a recognizable chain of command with policies and procedures in place to keep the ship afloat, the meeting moving forward, and complete chaos and mutiny from erupting. While disruption in many cases is desirable and enhances creativity, in other cases firm organization and absolutely clear communication is needed. When it comes to a mass meeting of all hands, you need a whole bunch of organization and communication, and as little disruption as possible less the entire affair degenerate into a complete disarray.
To operate a video all hands meeting using a videoconferencing app that doesn’t have a number of features and controls means that a number of people will not be heard, and neither will their questions. Getting all hands on deck is absolutely no use when you tell a number of them to go stand over there. Meetings do not need ballast in the form of bodies in chairs, but they do need balance and how the at attendees are treated. This means upgrading to a cloud-based app like BlueJeans not only to get all hands on deck, but to make sure that the meeting is effective in getting everyone moving in a productive direction. And doing that requires training.
Training, Training, and More Training
Deploying an enterprise-level videoconferencing solution is not something that happens overnight. These cloud-based applications used by some of the most prominent organizations and corporations are scalable down not only to small and medium sized operations, but even to the micro and nano-sized. An organization can bring in attendees from different time zones, across a geographically diverse area, pull in off-site consultants and telecommuters, and make sure that everyone hears and sees and has a chance to be seen and heard. Take time out to train everyone, no matter how frequently they attend meeting, in the use of these new tools in order to make them effective.
Videoconferencing at its best is a combination between face-to-face classroom learning with digital conveniences. The ability to access documents and rich media in app while in the meeting, and interact with presenters and speakers brings a more “classroom” feel that gives vital face time and context to the subject at hand. While most searches will give you a stark dichotomy between in person learning and digital learning, there is very little reason for this to be so when an application is correctly used by trained people to disseminate information and train others in the subject matter.
But it’s not over yet.
Not by a long shot.
It can take some serious and intensive follow-up – in some cases nearly 30 engagements with training material – to move it from short-term memory into long-term memory. Learning a new skill means that people are literally rewiring their brains, and that all hands meeting is going to need some follow-up before they’re ready for the real all hands meeting. TrainingMag notes that there is no training like daily practice to create incremental success that leads to widespread adoption. There is no magic wand application that can be used in place of use and retention of the skills imparted in training sessions.
Cramming is Ineffective
Despite what many of us recall from high school, cramming is an ineffective method for learning and retention. Researchers at UCLA agree that cramming and lack of sleep can contribute to low scores. Think back and see what you remember about your sophomore year chemistry exam. Unless you have consistently been using that knowledge, it evaporated from short term memory as soon as the need for it was done. Despite the proliferation of brain exercises and cognitive apps meant to stave off your brain’s polymerizing into an inflexible lump, there is still an ability to learn new skills in adulthood – otherwise nobody would ever work past the age of 30.
Get all your hands on deck with training, real-time use, and not just pointless repetition. With real-time training methods via video meeting, you’ll noticed an improvement in morale, and that people will actually start to look forward to meetings when they have the tools and training to participate.
