Business Meetings of the Future

            During my college career here at ONU, I have been a part of many different organizations and groups. This past semester I was able to be in a group of students starting our own organization on campus. With all of the hoops to jump through, we were able to find a faculty advisor, host group meetings, and come up with a business model and constitution for our group. Through this process, our groups main source of communication was through a Google Hangout.

            Google Hangout was our first choice in communication among the group. It gave us the best of both worlds between Group Me and having a group chat with everyone and Skype and being able to do video calls. This allowed us to plan things in writing and have the documentation and information to look back on and allowed members that couldn’t make meetings to be able to call in and still participate with the group and give ideas. Google hangout makes meetings so much easier and accessible to everyone.

            Guy Kawasaki writes in his book, “The Art of Social Media,” about how to maximize every platform you have but takes a whole chapter to write about Google Hangouts because it is so useful. He touches on many topics from maximizing the effectiveness of your hangouts, to something as simple as what to even wear and there’s a few that stood out to me and I wanted to talk about.

            

            One of the first points that caught my eye was “Add Structure.” Kawasaki makes a good point about how Google Hangouts are like lectures/classes and they should have a point behind them and not be all over the place. This allows the meetings to be worthwhile and maximize the efficiency of each hangout. In my opinion, having your Hangouts planned out and structured also gives the person you’re talking to the impression that you are very well prepared and a professional in a field that you are passionate about.

            Another point that Kawasaki talks about that goes along with having a structured Hangout is to rehearse it. Kawasaki talks about how the Google hangout interface can be confusing if you have never used it before and I couldn’t agree more. Using any new platform can be a recipe for disaster if you don’t take time to familiarize yourself with the structure and how things work. This also leads to the point that things don’t always go as planned. No matter how far ahead you plan, no matter how many scenarios you can think of in your head, something is bound to happen that you won’t have thought of. Being prepared and rehearsed on what you have to say and the structure of the platform itself will help you stay confident and on your feet in these types of situations.

            One of the simplest, yet interesting topics to me is “Wear Solid Colors.” Simple right? Not exactly. Sometimes our favorite clothes have a pattern or certain color scheme or color that just won’t work on camera. Kawasaki introduces the concept of “moiré.” Moiré is when a certain pattern on the screen looks wavy. This can cause visual issues with people you’re talking to and can just be frustrating to stare at a screen that looks wavy just because someone chose to wear a striped shirt.

             

            I know these tips seem simple and obvious to most and while they are fairly obvious, it’s something that is looked over quite often but can make a very large impact in the quality of your Hangout.