Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Tired of Meetings??? (.75)

Patrick Lencioni books are good, but sometimes it seems if you've read one you've read them all. He's the guy who writes about business wisdom via parables. I do like his ideas in his book entitled, "Death By Meeting."

Here's a snippet from an short interview summarizing the book:

Interviewer:   "You say that bad meetings are the most painful problem in business. How does a company know if its meetings have become deadly?"

Lencioni:  "If they're boring, that's a good sign that they're problematic. If people dread going to them, that's a pretty good sign. People should look forward to going to meetings and they should not be bored when they're there. Good meetings are where the real work gets done. When people perceive meetings as something they do instead of work, that's a big problem.  When people say they don't like meetings it's like surgeons saying they don't like operating on people or professional hockey players saying they don't like the games. For most of us in business, meetings are what we do. We get together in a room, make decisions, and discuss things.  Good meetings are where the real work gets done. When people perceive meetings as something they do instead of work, that's a big problem."

Read the rest of the short interview here for some immediately helpful counsel on better meetings. 

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