Axis Consulting

• Audio-visual audits
• Skills training for video conferencing
• Skills training for audio and web-based conferencing

This service is designed to provide a timely response to four major themes in our business environment today:

• An increase in Communication & Connectivity
• The need to operate in an Environmentally Responsible manner 
• The need to increase Personal and Business Effectiveness
• An increase in Travel Nightmares, wasting time, costing money and undermining work-life balance.

Put simply, we are communicating with each other more often but finding it increasingly difficult and morally less comfortable to travel for face-to-face meetings.

The value of face-to-face communication is universally acknowledged and the technology enabling remote 'face-to-face' communication - both from the video conferencing suite and from the desk-top, is well established.  However, the skills, confidence and culture in many of our businesses has yet to catch up.

AXIS provides three levels of service in this arena:

Audio-Visual Audits

This service is appropriate where an organisation has already made the investment and yet feels that it is not reaping the full benefit.

In our experience there is a "hierarchy of need" which applies to the use of sophisticated audio-visual systems in organisations.  Our role, in conducting the audit, is to determine where the level of need is greatest and to recommend actions.

interpersonal  do people demonstrate awareness of good interpersonal skills and appropriate use of body language - particularly in a video conference environment

environmental are environmental factors working with or against good communication, eg light, sound spatial layout and ergonomics

technical are there inherent problems with the technology - is it fit for purpose; do people know how to use it

The audit includes a technical appraisal of the system, it's installation and operation, as well as interviews with end users.  Our findings are pulled together into an executive report which gives you a clear picture of system effectiveness and recommendations for action.

The concept of a hierarchy is intrinsic in this process.  Whilst the system is failing technically, there is little point in addressing environmental factors and if the basic ergonomics are wrong, there is little point in recommending hours of interpersonal skills training to improve the weekly video conference.

Skills Training for Video Conferencing

Even when the system is both fit for purpose and set up in a manner which is technically robust and environmentally sound, the video conference can still be a nightmare experience and discredited as a means of communication.

In the words of one CEO, "our video conferences are nothing short of embarrassing - which is probably why we now rarely use this resource today"

All to often, people conduct themselves in a video conference, whether in the video suite or from the desk-top, as if they were invisible.  We would not dream of behaving in this way if all the participants were in the same space, yet, somehow remoteness breeds an unconscious complacency about body language.

There is a skill to communicating over a video medium and those people who do it well are very effective.

Skills Training for Audio and Web-Based Conferencing

Most of us are used to communicating via telephone, yet the addition of others on the same call can lead to confusion, and a lack of involvement and effectiveness.  It is not uncommon for audio conferences to be held in which half of the people on the line are participating in the meeting and the other half are answering emails, writing reports or playing solitaire!

Similarly, first time web conference users can suffer from a lack of confidence when initially confronted by this technology.  This can all too easily lead to the medium being shunned in favour of more conventional - but often less effective and more time consuming - traditional methods of communication.

We help users to quickly gain positive experience of, and confidence in, these communication channels leading to increased personal and business effectiveness.

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Whether operating in an audio, video or web-based environment, AXIS provides programmes to give people the skills and confidence to communicate with clarity and impact.  Our programmes are highly practical and involve a great deal of hands-on practice with analysis and feedback.

Courses are customised to suite your own set up and needs.  Thus they can act as an introduction to audio, video or web-based conferencing or they can be designed to develop existing practice where these systems are already in common use.