Conference calls have always been hailed as a great technological improvement for business, but like all technology, they are not without their – often hilarious – flaws.
It can feel like half of the time spent on the call is used figuring out who’s on, who’s off, and figuring out where that awful feedback noise is coming from. The video below by the comedy duo Tripp and Tyler accurately sums up the struggles of conference calls by imagining what the typical conference call would look like in real life.
As someone who spends considerable amounts of time in multi-city calls with Fuze, this video is pretty much spot on. I may have tinnitus from the feedback, or better yet, random bursts of noise that occur without warning (as if someone is trying to log on to AOL chat with their dial up on their parent’s computer circa 2001).
Although funny, this video wasn’t just created for laughs. Sponsored by Leadercast, a leadership initiative that was “was built on a belief that the world needs better leaders—leaders worth following.” The video seeks to use humor to illustrate the minute struggles of everyday office life — no doubt in order to show us how becoming or having a better leader could change that.
Leadercast aims to create “leaders worth following” by uniting powerful panels of leaders in various fields and broadcasting the seminars live all over the world. Additionally, they offer an in person leadership event and by looking at their website, clearly have plans to expand. A quick look at their lineup of speakers for their May 9th Live event in Atlanta is impressive: Former First Lady Laura Bush, author Malcolm Gladwell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu make up just the first third of the panel.
Unfortunately, like many events in this vein, the majority of speakers are white men. It would be truly innovative to see a Leadercast panel that does a better job of being inclusive of successful leaders that don’t all look the same.
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