I recently worked with 24 leaders and participants of regular virtual meetings. A few weeks later, I asked co-workers of this group for evidence of improvement and I thought I would share the results. My group was seen: Driving toward clearer criteria for making decisions Prioritizing more effectively Communicating more clearly Choosing a variety of approaches to move things forward rather than waiting for the standing meetings Bringing greater value to discussions Proposing better ideas Maintaining perspective relative to the “big picture” One co-worker summed it up as follows: “Their performance has jumped to the next level.”
Are you sick of meetings that suck up time and accomplish little? Join the crowd! But why is no one doing anything about it??? (Besides me!) So here is the solution! This short, powerful presentation will make your meetings short and powerful too. “We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This!” provides advice you are not getting anywhere else! These techniques have been proven to cut meetings in half while accomplishing twice as much. You can not afford not to try it!! And, of course, once you experience the joy of really driving an effective meeting, once you receive the accolades and thanks from your peers, don’t forget to recommend “We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This!” With your help, we can make people’s lives better and their businesses more productive.
I booked a rental car for Budapest yesterday using a reputable online service. Several red flags led me to follow up with a phone call. I wasn’t sure I could cross international borders. I needed to know more about insurance; when I clicked on the fine print, I was asked in which state I was requesting extra insurance. Below the list of choices, I was warned that extra insurance was not available for Texas. What about Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic??? The customer service rep was knowledgable and did her absolute best to find me a rental plan that fit my needs. And, of course, the minute I got off the phone, I received a survey asking about the service I received. Wait! That’s it? All they care about is their customer service rep? They don’t care that I just wasted a couple of hours and don’t have a car I can drive to Poland because their online sales process is so inadequate?
We arrived early to make first tracks in the fresh powder. The snow has been so fabulous this year that we’ve become completely spoiled. But not so spoiled that we were unprepared for disappointing conditions! After one run, I’m back in the lodge waiting for the sun to climb higher and soften the snow. In the meantime, I can answer emails, write a blog post, and make a few calls. Instead of feeling disappointed, I seize the opportunity to get some things accomplished. Business, and life, rarely go as planned. To increase your odds of success, prepare for those disappointing conditions. Is your business overly dependent on a single individual, vendor, facility, or condition? Do your plans involve many unknowns or interdependencies? Are you relying on luck and people outside your control?
An ounce of planning is worth a pound of rework. If you’ve ever: Wasted time on a wild-goose trail that turned out to be irrelevant to your goals Built something that wouldn’t fit Been stuck waiting for something that no one thought to do Been a day late and a dollar short You know that insufficient planning can lead to tremendous delays, wasted money, and great frustration. But do you also know that accurate, complete, and detailed plans can be counter-productive?
A second snowstorm in less than a week forced many Boston companies into a second costly closure. The next day, while the CEO of one of those companies and I were discussing the value of organizational clarity, she raised a perfect example. The employee in charge of closures had struggled massively the day before. “Should we or shouldn’t we close?” His head was filled with conflicting thoughts: trucks on clogged streets, snow falling an inch an hour, people waiting for deliveries, and a painful backlog from the previous snow days, to name just a few. He agonized and agonized. In the end, he had to come to the CEO for a decision. The CEO responded with one word: “Safety.” The same answer she would have given the week before and would be prepared to give with the third and subsequent storms. Suddenly the decision was easy. But in the meantime, this single decision sucked up several employee hours, created significant stress, and left the CEO wondering why otherwise capable employees are so often crippled by decisions. Why does this happen? Why couldn’t this employee see that safety must reign?
Some situations are simply loaded. The tension, fear, and/or anger are palpable and crippling. Turf wars, individual vulnerabilities, personality conflicts, frustration over slow progress, and past insults are among the most common causes. Other situations start off on better footing, but decay quickly despite everyone’s best intentions. I’ve walked into both situations numerous times. In some cases, I’ve been hired because of these problems. Other times, the CEO is oblivious to the dysfunction. In one such case, a Board member told me confidentially that they all needed psychotherapy. I laughed, but she was dead serious. When leaders recognize they have a problem like this, their tendency is to take everyone to an off-site retreat or hire someone to do team building. Millions are spent on activities ranging from ropes courses to group dinners every year. Most fail miserably. The best have a fleeting impact. Why?
During a film review on NPR, the reviewer applauded the film’s brilliant and creative use of its underlying formula. “Underlying formula”? I have to admit my first reaction was skeptical. How brilliant and creative could it be if it followed a formula? Sounds like a “brilliant” copy of other films. Then I thought a bit about what that underlying formula might actually look like: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Life gets in the way. OK, now they’ve got us on the edge of our seats, dying to know if the boy and girl can overcome the obstacles and live happily ever after. Not only does this formula work, it has worked for centuries. From Romeo to Juno and The Newsroom. With more thought, I realized that I’ve triggered that same skeptical reaction in others. It happens quite often when I talk about the formula that helps people make better decisions faster!
I just read that Americans will spend $700 million on Valentine’s Day this year. For their pets!! Not their significant others. Not their children. Just for their pets! I’ve got nothing against dogs and cats, but what if, just this once, everyone redirected those dollars or matched those dollars, with a contribution to a worthy cause? What if we did the same with Valentine’s gifts for beaus and kids? And what if we picked a cause, collectively donated what has to be well over a billion dollars, and made a serious dent in a real problem?
I was in the groove. Lots of little turns and good speed. He was faster. One of those straight down guys. He delivered a hip check and kept on going. A hit and run. Left me on the ground and never slowed down. Probably never even heard the name I screamed at him from the top of my lungs. I was fuming. So mad my knees were shaking after I stood up. Or maybe that was from the shock of having someone knock my skis out from underneath me on the fly. How could he not stop? How could he not bother to ask if I was OK? Who decks another skier and doesn’t even apologize and offer to help?