Fact or opinion?

https://youtu.be/8zCD0qThw8E

Steve reduced his meetings from 150 minutes to 40 minutes

The Quest goes on – City of Bayswater

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The sixth expedition on my quest was the City of Bayswater The Mayor was impressive in his opening of the meeting with the acknowledgement of country […]

The Quest heads north – City of Wanneroo

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The fifth expedition on my quest was the City of Wanneroo. The Mayor of Wanneroo is Tracey Roberts and she ran a tight meeting. She is […]

The Quest continues – City of Armadale

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The fourth expedition on my quest was the City of Armadale The latest – City of Armadale – 560 sq kms Population: 98K Revenue: $136m Staff: […]

The third expedition on my Local Government quest

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The third expedition on my quest was the City of Swan 15 councillors – Mayor elected by the councillors. A very large area – 1042 sq […]

The second expedition on my Local Government quest

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The second expedition on my quest was the Town of Cambridge. The Mayor, Keri Shannon, is a lawyer and it showed – in a good way. […]

The first expedition on my Local Government quest

I’m on a quest to visit every local government council meeting in the Perth metropolitan area. There are 29. On each expedition I will write about what I find. The first expedition on my quest was the Town of Claremont. The meeting was efficient and effective and included the adoption of the budget. The most […]

I’m on a quest

My Meetings Quest is attracting media attention. I’m on a quest to visit every Perth metropolitan local government council meeting and report on what I find. I have been to 6 so far – 21 to go. The purpose is to share my observations in my new book on meetings and meeting procedure. Here’s an […]

Signs to look for of fraudulent or inappropriate behaviour in organizations

The vast majority of people in organizations, particularly voluntary ones, are reasonable and honest people. But there are some bad apples out there and they tend to be clever and conniving and cover their tracks well. This post is about warning signs when things are not going as they should. Right up front, let me […]

High performance meetings are always safe

The best performing teams have one thing in common – psychological safety. It’s exactly the same in meetings. In your meetings, how willing are people to speak up when they have a different point of view? How willing are they to disagree? How willing are they to offer new ideas? How willing are they to […]

Presence – the elusive quality

Which is more important when you speak or present – content or delivery?

Think about receiving a parcel. I have one coming today and I’m looking forward to receiving it. The delivery is crucial – it doesn’t matter what the contents are. If the delivery fails the whole thing is irrelevant. It’s exactly the same with presenting. If the delivery is poor, it doesn’t really matter about the […]

How we shortened a 2 hour meeting down to 15 minutes and still covered everything.

I had a client who had a requirement to formally meet with the workforce once a week. It could best be described as a cross between a toolbox meeting and a safety meeting. These meetings lasted for over an hour and the boss thought they could be shorter, much shorter. I asked him how […]

Challenge yourself to paint pictures with your words

Metaphors make your words sizzle and sing. They give instant clarity as brains are more wired to images than just words. They’re the quickest route to the brain. They’re visual, they get attention, they’re memorable, evocative and achieve instant understanding. It’s a way of communicating. A shortcut to instant understanding, use for persuasion, something is […]

Halve your meeting frequency & double productivity

Here’s an idea to put in your toaster and see what pops up. Halve the frequency of your meetings. Right now. Just try it. If you currently meet every week, try meeting every 2 weeks. If you currently meet every 2 weeks, try meeting every month or every 3 weeks. If you currently meet every […]

Respected leaders are decisive

There is a really interesting piece of research that was done with 400 CEOs. This is what they were asked….. “Of all the decisions that have been made in your organization, either by themselves or their Senior Management team, how many ended up being successful?” Amazingly the results were almost universal, and that is, about […]

This may explain why things aren’t moving forward

Are you and your team “Yes but” people, or “Yes and” people? Do you naturally tend to say “yes and” or do you naturally say “yes but“? The answer to that question can define your decision-making style and even your style of work generally. But let’s dive deeper. Think about your meetings – all of them. […]

Who is the drummer in your meetings? Who sets the pace?

Every meeting has a rhythm, a pace, sometimes called the cadence. Surprisingly, it’s not always the person running the meeting. But it should be. In almost every piece of music, the drummer is the first to start playing. There’s a reason for that. The drummer sets the rhythm. Everyone else takes their timing and rhythm […]

Design & Delivery – the 2 crucial ingredients for powerful presentations

Designing an executive’s presentation is like designing a car. It needs to fit the style of the executive. It needs to fulfil its function. It needs to be built for the appropriate audience. It needs to make the executive look and feel good and be proud of the end result. On top of all that […]

Biting the bullet on the people who are deadwood in your organisation

Bite the bullet on people who are deadwood in your organisation Recently I was working with a client and had an interesting conversation with a senior manager. The client was a very large organisation which employed thousands of people. The topic of deadwood came up – people who were not performing satisfactorily. I asked him […]

Use the Traffic Light Principle to improve your meetings

The humble traffic light – green, amber, red – is a quick and powerful way to find out what people really think about the meetings they attend. It’s simple. Ask your team members to simply rank what they think of the meetings they attend using the traffic light principle – it’s quick, easy and effective. […]

How many times should you practise a presentation?

We all know you need to practice before you present. But when it really matters, and your job could be on the line, what is the ideal number? Is it 5, 10 or 20 times? I was working with a large law firm who had been asked to make a presentation to a bank which […]

Is there a link between the number of meetings you attend and salary?

Some people justify their salary by having meetings. But are the meetings effective? Today I had an interesting meeting with a senior business person with experience across a lot of businesses as a consultant and as a leader within. We were talking about my favourite subject – meetings (yes, it’s sad isn’t it) and he […]

Why the difference between misinformation and disinformation in meetings matters

Why the difference between misinformation and disinformation in meetings matters The meaning of misinformation is often merged with that of disinformation, but they are not interchangeable. You cannot put them together as they are very different. Disinformation is when someone deliberately misleads by sending biased or manipulated facts on purpose. Often the data is crafted […]

Parkinson’s Law is alive and Well

I’ve been talking about Parkinson’s Law in relation to meetings for over 30 years. Simply stated (in terms of meetings) it says that a meeting will run for as long as there is time available. I have added the flip – meetings will also run for as long as the time allotted. So in simple […]

Is snail mail the way of the future?

Every now and then, I go through my emails and set up a pile of filters to delete the email newsletters and other things that I simply never read – I set the filter to delete them – gone forever! I know I am not alone in doing this. I send email notifications out to […]

It’s all about getting your ducks in a row!

Everyone was surprised at how we managed to get so many people to vote at a community association meeting. It’s all about getting your ducks in a row! This week I was involved in a Special General Meeting of a community organisation for which I am responsible for governance. There were two very important special […]

How do some people climb the ladder but somehow miss out on learning how to speak effectively?

It’s really interesting, I think, that some leaders climb the corporate ladder and yet they somehow miss out on acquiring the skill to present and speak effectively. We have all been at presentations where a CEO or director has spoken at an event and their staff have cringed in embarrassment. It happens a lot. I […]

To Wear a Tie or Not to Wear a Tie

Recently I was working with a professional services firm and the issue of wearing ties sparked some interest. It was raised from a person in the team who preferred not to wear a tie, while his boss, did have a preference for wearing ties. It prompted me to do some informal research. I sat in […]