Productivity Cafe

Long Meeting – boring or engaging?

Have you sat through day-long meetings with the most memorable part being the numbness you felt in your bum, the big blinks you took at 2pm because you were fighting a snooze reflex after the hotel meal, or thinking, "How many freaking speakers are there?"

I recently received this message from "John" in Atlanta.

Hello Susan ... would you have a suggestion how to keep attendees of a daylong seminar stimulated until the end? I read your article on organizing a meeting, but an all day seminar is hard to keep people attentive. We have 7 speakers, and we are all in one room, usually 250 to 500 people. We are in a convention hall, and the main topic is financial investing.

Here's my reply to John. Hopefully you find something to make your next long meeting better here:

Keeping the audience engaged for a whole day is an art form as well a specific set of skills.

Here are 3 quick proven ways to engage people throughout the day:

1.      Make sure they move from the seat they started in at least every 20 minutes. Use group problem solving, sharing in pairs, and similar activities (and urge that people cannot have the person to their left or right as their partner). The success of this is 100% in the setup (the way it's presented to participants).

2.      (foreshadowed above). Have the participants do activities that require them to talk, think, and assimilate the information given to them.

3.      Hire a facilitator or Master of Ceremonies. Good facilitators preview the meeting, make suggestions, and guide the meeting to successful engagement throughout.

Oh, and, end before an 8 hour day is done.

p.s. send me your questions - I love helping you have 'the good life' in work & out

Meetings, Money and Morale

Millions of dollars of time are invested in meetings. Bad meetings mean lots of wasted money. Bad meetings mean diminished morale. Is this problem worse than email domination? I'm not sure but it's up there on the list of things that ruin people's work day.

It's seldom that I review my consulting work with you. Today is one of those rare days. That's because this is a vivid situation that I'd like to share with you and explore over a number of articles here. I'm passionate about stopping waste and especially passionate about stopping waste of such a limited and precious resource as time.

Let's start with the characteristics of bad meetings. There are lots of them. Here are my top 5:

• No agenda
• An agenda that isn't followed
• Starting late and running late
• One person dominating the meeting
• Making everyone hear material again while a latecomer is briefed
• Lack of follow-through (I know, this is #6 but I couldn't pick any to leave off)

What's on your list?

Here's the calculation. This organization has between 6,000 and 7,000 employees. If we can save each one from a badly-run one-hour meeting once a week the savings for the company is in the range of $2,750,000 per year. If we can save them from two one-hour meetings, well, this is an urgently needed improvement.

Going beyond the value of the time saved will be increased productivity. While people are out of meetings they'll actually be getting their work done. And, not having to prepare for wasteful meeting frees up even more time and lightens the workload burden.

And best of all, these employees will be happier. Happy employees mean productive employees. Morale will get a boost when employees feel heard, feel like they're contributing, and determine their time is applied satisfactorily (rather than wasted in some meetings).

It's curious that well run, well prepared meetings seem to be the exception rather than the rule. How is it in the company where you work? Comment below so we can start talking about this meeting culture.

Consequences of Not Knowing the Rules of the Game

I sat across the table with disbelief and building anger as Pepper waltzed into the business dinner an hour late. I was responsible for arranging this private meeting with Tony - a man with experience and success in a particularly profitable business venture that we wanted to learn about. Tony was in town for a convention and generously offered the evening to us. One of the most experienced people in our organization (Ben) was also able to attend and willing to contribute his expertise from 30+ successful years in other dimensions of our business.

This newbie, Pepper, held us all up. Adding fuel to the frustration was my email from 2 days before the dinner confirming that we all had to be there to be seated and we had only a 10 minute window. Luckily influential Ben worked his magic and we got a table without being a whole party. The final bit of gasoline on the fire of my aggravation was that Pepper invited her best friend to join us – the friend knows nothing of our business and seemed to think this was a cocktail party. Actually, no, that wasn't the final bit. The final bit was the minute when Tony went to the hostess desk to receive delivery of his lost luggage – it had been lost for 13 hours so far. When he stepped away Pepper leans across the table and says, "Give me a brief on this guy. Is he a doctor? What's the topic?" OK now, that was the part that crazed me because a briefing was sent on Tony – as well as a link to his website where particular relevant background information was offered.

You regular readers know that I'm not the type to blow up – and I didn't. Ok, I am blowing up but it's here on paper and the names have been changed to protect those involved. And, Pepper said, and I quote, "I don't read email," so I won't imagine she'll ever cue in online. Our guests made comments, and I made judgments about this Pepper which are possibly wrong – but vivid:

• She's a prima donna
• She's an air head
• She's self-centered
• She's oblivious
• She's a genius – just not at business meeting courtesy

You Don’t Have to Be Unhappy in Your Job -The Fred Factor Book

Mark Sanborn wrote a powerful little 112 page book that catches the spirit of someone who puts passion in his job and impacts his customers in the most positive way. The book is The Fred Factor. The main character is Fred - an unassuming man. Fred's job could be argued as one of the most repetitive and possibly boring – he delivers mail. Yet, Fred's approach to the work is to be customer focused and happy.

We read about the ways that Fred's actions demonstrate his passion. He checks on customer's travel schedules, ensures that the mail he leaves would not tempt a bad guy, and stops and talks to his customers. Imagine that – 10 minutes conversation during which your mail deliverer finds out a little bit about you though you'll only be in each other's lives for 5 or maybe 10 years.

Fred is a real man. Sanborn creates an acronym with F R E D (Find, Reward, Educate, Demonstrate) to guide managers on hiring and workers on putting the passion in their lives and make a difference in the world. Each of the F R E D factors is illustrated and explained in easy-to-understand manner and translated into action. Companies that use the Fred Factor to create a common vision and language for motivating, serving, and performance will have a vivid path to success. People who incorporate F R E D factors into their outlook on their jobs will have growing joy in what they do.

I give this book a strong recommendation in favor. (Did you notice I rarely use the space here to dis a book? My philosophy is that there are too many good books to waste space with negative ones!)

 

How to Deliver Bad News the Easy Way

You can tell someone bad news and spend the next 45 minutes in a drawn out conversation about the background or justification for the message you had to deliver. Or you can be one of those unique people who can deliver bad news and have the recipient leave quickly, smiling. This is an art form that is grounded in a simple technique. It's called the sandwich technique. The structure of the sandwich technique is:

1. Launch with something positive
2. Delivery the bad news
3. End with something positive

The slices of bread of the sandwich are the positive comments. The meat of the sandwich is the negative news. Its construction keeps us from blurting out things with the power of a Mac truck.  It's a simple formula that could go all wrong if not done carefully. Here are some things to include when using the technique to ensure it will work for you:

• Plan this conversation. Do not improvise because there are too many ways for things to go wrong if you're not prepared.
• Be sincere. Those positive things need to ring true to the guy receiving them.
• The bad news needs to be put diplomatically so that the person you're saying it to can actually hear you rather than jump into a reactive mode.
• If possible keep the criticism, situation, and message focused on the facts. Do not criticize the person, just actions and outcomes.

Here's an actual application of the sandwich technique:

Jay was meeting with Justin to lay him off since their company, RCN, was having extreme financial difficultly.

Justin! {shaking hands}  I'm glad

 

Annual Review & Job Performance - - It’s not about your weaknesses

Is it time for your annual review? Some large organizations have performance reviews for all employees at this time of year. If yours isn't imminent, it will be here soon enough. It's a scary time for people because performance reviews can feel more like a demoralizing session than anything. Don't buy that – criticism, pointing out 'areas for improvement', and focus on the negative are not the right angle for performance reviews according to many performance experts including Marcus Buckingham and the master of management, Peter Drucker.

Performance comes from people doing what they're good at over and over again. Like Red Sox who practice hitting for hours a day, not only are they repeating what they're good at, they're getting better at what they're good at doing. Red Sox have training camp and continue to have practice throughout the season to keep their skills honed. They don't learn how to swing the bat then consider themselves the master of the sport. They get the basics then do drills to achieve mastery.

Similarly,

Shorter Meetings with 6 Useful Agenda Tips

If you have an agenda use it. Sounds like a statement that should actually be, "If a meeting has an agenda, follow it, *pause* Duh". Yes, this seems like a no brainer. Yes having an agenda is obvious. Yet, executives I talk to say they would be delighted if all meetings did have an agenda and if it was followed when they do.

The post from earlier this year addresses making meeting shorter is where the suggestion for having an agenda first appeared on the Productivity Cafe. Today's article is about bringing the meeting back on track when the agenda seems to be left behind as conversation flows to non-agenda topics.

Here are some transition lines that you can use to leave the time-wasting rabbit trail and get back on the main track.

• We seem to be off the agenda at the moment. What you're talking about is important and it should be the topic of a separate meeting. Let's get back to the point where we got off the agenda. We were on item # 4…. (then pick up back on the agenda item).
• That discussion seems to involve just the two of you. Let's take advantage of everyone being together and get back to the topics on the agenda that concern everyone. Would you two take that off-line and summarize your conclusions in an email?
• We are taking a bit too much time on this topic if we're going to wrap the meeting up by 11:30.

Assistant assists executive or thwarts

Should you fire your assistant?

Many of my posts originate with the work I'm doing with clients. This one is from real life. (Names are changed to protect identity).

The executive, Richard, spent more than a year with an assistant, Marie, who assisted in the areas she liked and let other areas go fallow. Actually she ignored areas that weren't fun for her even tho' they were clearly part of the job - filing kept piling, for example.

The impact of Marie's piling was blemishes on the executive's reputation. Richard told people he never received resumes, articles, and reports because they never made it to his hands. But, the papers did, in fact, make it to his mailbox and were 'handled' by Marie. They were set aside in the pile and soon forgotten.

The remedy for this situation was not to get Marie more training, to have heart-to-heart discussions with Marie, nor to threaten Marie. It was to help Marie find something else to do. Since they work for a large company Marie found a different position that suited her interests and talents. Richard hired a new assistant who not only willingly files but is collaborating with me to help Richard be super streamlined, organized, and responsive.

If this situation rings true to you -- get things moving -- move your assistant out and someone who will really assist you in!