Steve reduced his meetings from 150 minutes to 40 minutes

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 […]

Leading a meeting and playing chess are strategically similar

Would you like to lead a meeting as strategically as Beth Harmon plays chess? Beth Harmon skillfully shows us that chess can be ‘almost sexy’. Mind you, those clothes, with that haircut, and Beth’s unique looks sure helped. Men and women alike adored her. Imagine if these strategies were emulated when you lead a meeting. Is it even possible that ‘leading a […]

Presence – the elusive quality

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

Some businesses seem to miss the point

Recently I have come across two businesses that in my humble opinion have missed the point. I am not going to identify either business as that is not the important issue. Business One. The first is a small food business. It does mainly take away food and also has enough seating for around 10 – […]

The secret sauce you need to make sense of the different generations

The other generations are not “wrong”, they are just different! I have found myself talking a lot in the last couple of weeks about the different generations and their different needs, expectations and ways of working. The first thing I found I needed to do was find some categorical information about who actually fits into […]

What is confirmation bias and how does it affect your decisions?

Confirmation bias is the phenomenon that when making a decision, people tend to look for and consider data that supports their own view or opinion or the decision they “want”. It is a serious problem because it means that the range of options is not considered and the resulting decision tends to be based on […]

What To Wear When You Speak? – David Price

You have an important presentation to make and you just don’t know what to wear. It’s a question that is as important for men as it is for women. In his book “You are the message”, Roger Ailes, titles the first chapter “The First Seven Seconds” and you can guess what it says – first […]