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 […]
Steve reduced his meetings from 150 minutes to 40 minutes
Steve reduced hi meetings from 150 minutes to 40 minutes
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Is it nepotism if a husband and wife serve together on the same committee?
QUESTION – A vacancy occurred on a committee and a man said his wife would be happy to fill it. The committee was in need of new members, so the group was happy to accept her. Is this good for the organisation? ANSWER From a governance perspective, there is technically nothing which disallows a husband […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Fact or Opinion – The crucial distinction for good decision making
It’s been calculated that the “average” adult makes 35,000 decisions every day. It seems a bit high to me but who am I to argue with esteemed researchers. But let’s be a little more realistic and find a number we can comprehend more easily. Let’s say that at work, the average person makes between 50 […]
How to be a Charismatic Chairperson – David Price
In every workplace, on virtually any day, there will be one, six, ten, a hundred meetings and every one will be “led” by someone. Whether that person sees themselves as “chairing” the meeting or not, the other people do. And so every day throughout the world there are tens of thousands of people chairing meetings – it is perhaps the most common universal activity which occurs in workplaces in every part of the globe every working day.
Meetings! Meetings! Meetings!
Virtually everyone in the working world attends meetings at some stage. Staff meetings, management meetings, planning meetings, information meetings, update meetings … they are apparently endless. Research conducted in Australia recently showed that the average manager spent 70% of their time in meetings. When do they get time to work? It really doesn’t have to […]