The value of conference calls

Filed in archive Consultancy on April 24, 2007

Recently I was involved in resolving problems with an application after business hours. The person coordinating this issue called me while I was troubleshooting, asking me if I was able to join the conference call. I refused. Why ? Conference calls are not productive from a technical point of view. Okay, but why did I refuse to take part in the conference call ? I was trying to find out what the real problem was and did not want to waste my time listening to people claiming all kind of things. From what my collegue told me, some of the participants in the call were claiming things that did not happen and did not have anything to do with the problem at hand. I believe it is wise in such situations to try and tackle the problem first, and join the conference later to explain your findings and solutions.