Fast Company recently published a blog post called 10 Rules for Effective Conference Calls, which sounds about right … and I think you’ll agree that you’ve heard … or did … or thought … these same things yourself.

OK, now let’s move to slide 5. Can everyone see this slide?

(Slide with 12 rows of text appears. Jill proceeds to read all 12 lines of text.)

(Dead silence – everyone is on mute, reading mail, playing Solitaire or checking news, sports, and weather…)

How about this one?

Frank, what do you think?

(No answer.)

DARA

Is Frank still on the line.

(More silence…)

FRANK

(Fumbling to unmute his phone)

Oh, sorry, did someone ask me something? I had the phone on mute.

If you haven’t heard these or been one of the perpetrators … then you haven’t actually been on a conference call … or you were the one playing solitaire and didn’t hear any of it.

There are some solid reminders here about how to make these calls more effective. Read on to optimize the effectiveness of your next conference call.