THUNDER BAY – TECH – One of the biggest slowdowns in the business world is the need to shuffle notes during meetings. Whether you’re dealing with multiple copies and handouts, visual information such as graphs or videos, or thick reports that can be time consuming and costly to print out for everyone, there are certain types of technology that can make this process much easier. Screen sharing, which is available through video conferencing technology, is a great way to eliminate all of these obstacles. You and your participants have the ability to share real time notes and content, greatly benefiting not only workflow, but also communication. Here are four reasons why screen sharing is the next investment you should make for your business.
- Analyzing Communication Styles
Everyone has a different communication style, whether you’re a better speaker or maybe you’re particularly adept at concise, pointed emails. Regardless of how refined your communication skills are, though, there are just certain systems that work better than others such as video conferencing and screen sharing. In fact, using Blue Jeans online video conferencing to share screens and data is one of the best way to complement your communication skills if they’re already stellar to begin with, and take your meetings to the next level. You always want to maximize your time, as well as your participants’ time, whether they’re joining a meeting from across the building, state, or even country.
- Handouts Versus Real Time Materials
It’s true that one of the biggest sources of miscommunication and inefficiency is when your meeting participants are trying to do too many things at one. Making notes, asking questions, and still trying to process complex information can lead to important points getting missed, and even frustration from colleagues. To begin to combat this problem, Entrepreneur advises that presenters should create handouts during regular meetings when information becomes too detailed for verbal explanations, but you can go one step better than that when you utilize screen sharing. When you’re assessing and refining business communication, always remember that effectively conveying information means power. Having everyone on the same page doesn’t only improve efficiency, but it also morale. Giving your employees the tools necessary to do their jobs better by arming them with knowledge is a surefire way to instill sense of purpose and loyalty to your business.
- Do It Now, Not Later
It’s always better to do things immediately, rather than putting them off until a later date. This especially applies to video conference meetings, since there’s no reason not to provide all information and actionable conclusions at once. After a meeting ends, regardless of how many notes someone takes or if they mark a task on their to do list as important to review your presentation, things get lost in the shuffle. Everyone’s schedules are especially busy these days since many times, employees are wearing multiple hats and have maybe even absorbed other people’s jobs. There’s a way to get around this though, and make information sharing more efficient.
Dropbox recommends that meeting presenters directly share Power Point presentations, graphs, and other visual pieces of information with participants since it can be difficult to make notes while still paying attention. Screen sharing eliminates this problem, delivering slide decks or slide presentations directly to your participants’ screens simultaneously, allowing them to focus on the data, rather than trying to juggle the information and making their own notes.
- Business Communication Over Distances
There’s sometimes no replacement for being able to look at the same screen as a colleague, especially when you’re working with complicated data. Screen sharing is a very useful tool for when you have a staff that’s spread across distances, or even off-site workers who are checking in. If you’re working on a project in spreadsheet, for example, the ability to monitor and shift data around while looking at the same screen helps to avoid mistakes where your changes overlap with your colleague’s. This applies for any document you’re editing at the same time as someone else. There are features such as “track changes” in Microsoft Word, but when you’re sending documents back and forth, it’s easy for things to get lost in the mix. Screen sharing not only cuts down on errors, but also reduces time wasted with the confusing back and forth of multiple edits.
There are several core lessons to take away from these tips. One is that business communication is all forms should be treated as top priority within your company. Information is power, and that is particularly true when you’re dealing with a staff and lots of moving parts. Whether you’re an SMB or a large corporation, what causes mistakes, setbacks, and contributes to a bad image to your clients are mistakes. While it’s in your best interests to admit when you’ve actually made an error, but you can avoid that scenario to begin with if you do everything right the first time.
