By John Brown, The Man
Do you regularly sit
through meetings that seem to accomplish nothing?
Meetings where people
drone on and on and on.
Meetings where people
discuss and no decision is ever made.
Meetings that always
slide off topic.
Meetings that should
never have been held in the first place.
In many cases, the
reason these meetings stink is because those organizing them are not aware
there’s any other way to hold a meeting. But there is. I was fortunate enough
to have been exposed to it just out of college while working for a business consulting
firm in San Francisco.
After learning the
simple and powerful principles, I was eventually paid to plan and facilitate
meetings for clients. In some of these meetings they were making incredibly important
decisions. I remember a client flying me and a colleague from San Francisco to
Delaware for two days of meetings.
You might be groaning
at the thought. But they paid thousands of dollars to have us come and
facilitate. And when we were done, the energy in the room was palpable. A
number of those that were involved were astounded and said they’d never been
involved in such productive sessions. They’d accomplished more in the hours we
were there than in months of other meetings. They were happy and grateful we’d
come.
Think of that—happy
and grateful for a meeting that went on for hours!
When meetings are done
right, the collaboration and synergy can be amazing. Now, you may think that
some secret handshake is required to learn how to do this. Or that it’s only
for those with some special knack. Or that it’s only for high-powered jobs. If
you do, you’d be wrong.
And that’s because you
can learn the principles all for a few bucks. They’re laid out in perfect
clarity in How to Make Meetings Work by Michael Doyle and David Straus.
This is the book that was the source of our training sessions all those years
ago. And I reread it every few years to brush up. The principles work in
everything from a family council to a board meeting to class settings. I know
because I’ve used the ideas in all of them. And when I fail to take just a few
minutes to prepare, that’s when the meeting becomes, well, just another (yawn)
meeting.
If you hold meetings
of any kind and want to improve them, give this book a try. I think you’ll be
happy you did.
