I appreciated most about this book is the way it doesn't rely on me to change myself, Lent's approach is to change the structure and conditions of meetings instead, So, instead of figuring out how I'll get Fred to express his opinion in a large group, I can arrange the meeting so that Fred can talk to two or three other people in a smaller setting where it's more likely.
That contribution gets reported and integrated, And that can be a feature of the big meeting, Fred is satisfied and so am I, That's just one technique that I use all the time,
When it comes to meetings timewaster meetings, Lent has two great approaches, Define the work of the meeting or agenda item clearly, and then think through whether the right people to do that work will attend, If I do both of those things, neither I nor the people who attend should feel that our meeting was a waste of time,
Finally, this is a book that you can use in the meeting, Obviously, this takes some practice, but if you're stuck at a decision making point, for example, you can stop the action and figure it out, "We need to make a decision, Let's be clear about what it is and how we'll do it, Let's review the ways we can decide, " That's likely to bring to light the ways those in the room have different assumptions, Clarity and decisions ensue.
I recommend this book to all of the leadership and consulting clients I work with who need to make meetings more meaningful and useful, It may take some practice to understand how this approach is different, It's easier, and it also calls on leaders to have greater respect for their people's contributions, This is a book for people who are ready to see leading as something different and better than controlling and directing their people, I read Tara Brabazon's review of this book and will agree that there is no "checklist for when meetings should not be held or cancelled, " I have to write, though, that I never noticed that during the reading, I found so many takeaways, so many "I can do"s, so many aHA!s that I dogeared, bookmarked and highlighted the book to death,
Dr. Lent wrote the book for people versed in the field, That's obvious and I get that, However, I believe the Leading Great Meetings's real value is to people outside the field, For example, I often am required to hold meetings, am sometimes surprised to learn I'm presenting at a meeting I'm sure that's never happened to anybody else, right, and this book is rich with things I can do as a novice that make my meetings proactive, actionable, conclusive and engaging.
I know how to keep things on track, when to lead, when to let someone else lead and for how long, how to arrange discussions, when to introduce topics and how to recognize a given subject needs to be closed and/or shelved.
So, with all respect to Ms, Brabazon's thoughts, this Leading Great Meetings's a gem,
I reread Leading Great Meetings because I'm doing a series of oneonone sitelinkAuthor Interviews and wanted to know if I could do them better, Once again, Dr. Lent's book came to the rescue, Read with an eye that conducts meetings regurlarly, this book is still a gem,
I also recommend it for solopreneurs, Many of the suggestions in Leading Great Meetings are wonderful I'd suggest "required reading" for consultants who regularly go to client meetings and want to get things done,
Strongly suggested. I had high hopes for this book after it was recommended by a friend, The trademarked "tools" for meetings make reading and using the tips a clunky and annoying process, Virtually every
tip is an acronym created by the author that requires cross referencing,
I found most of the tips to be intuitive such as creating an agenda beforehand, only inviting people who need to be in the room to a meeting and setting times for the agenda.
This may be more useful for large corporations rather than meetings at small grassroots orgs, The greatest time waster in the contemporary workplace is the meeting, The confusion between talking and thinking and talking and doing blocks innovation, imagination and intelligence at work, Anything that can help, address and challenge this 'business as usual' behaviour is welcome,
This book is a 'how to' guide to improve meetings, including virtual or online meetings, The best tips in this book involve the preparation for the meeting, focusing on the decisions to be made and time management,
A key chapter that would have lifted this book to three is a checklist for when meetings should not be held or cancelled, The one change I would make to the contemporary workplace is a recognition of the preciousness of time, At the moment, time is spent in meetings as if it is valueless, Once we start recognizing the productivity of time and the value of space in a working day for developing innovation and clarity, then our workplaces will transform,
This book helps us improve our current working pattern, However the working pattern requires deep critique and transformation, rather than improvement, Attended any good meetings lately Probably not, But the next one you lead could be a great one,
Recent advances in helping groups talk together are creating new ways to run better meetings naturallya structural approach, All meetings have structures that affect how groups behave, In most meetings, this structure goes unconsidered with unfortunate consequences,
Dr. Richard Lent wrote Leading Great Meetings to show you how to use structure to make your meetings much more productive, The right meeting structure helps people talk together effectively without having to remember how to behave, This is different from meeting recommendations that rely on adopting rules or changing behavior when discussions get heated, people ignore the rules and good behavior is hard to maintain, Structure can create a naturally productive meeting,
The book provideschoices andtools to plan and conduct a wide range of meetings, You can select the choices and tools relevant to your situation, Included are stories, examples, even “blueprints,” so you can see how a structural approach works in action, .