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Meetings: The Good, the Bad, and the Awful
I have been studying and writing about meetings and other corporate conversations for many years. My understanding of how meetings work and my “rules” for leading meetings that matter are based on a...
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Meeting Experiences: Survey Results
Last week I asked my readers to complete a brief survey to help me understand the kinds of meetings you participate in and how you feel about them. Many thanks to those of you who responded and shared...
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Just Say Thank You!
(image of fall colors courtesy of Cindy Ware) This is Thanksgiving week in the United States – a reminder to slow down, pause, spend time with family and friends, and be thankful for our blessings. It...
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Making the Invisible Visible
Alan Webber suggested over 20 years ago that the core work of knowledge-based organizations is conversation – the creation and exchange of ideas, information, knowledge, and even wisdom (see “What’s So...
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Why Meetings Matter
“A meeting is an indispensable tool – if you don’t want to get anything done.” – John Kenneth Galbraith As Fast Company founder Alan Webber pointed out over twenty years ago,...
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Here’s to Holiday Conversations that Matter
This is the time of year when most of us slow down, gather with friends and family, focus on the blessings in our lives, decorate our homes, and celebrate life lessons emanating from whichever deity we...
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Five Simple Rules for Making Distributed Meetings more Effective
Most of us today spend more time in meetings with people who are somewhere else than we do with our colleagues down the hall. And while most of the “rules” for leading face-to-face meetings also apply...
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Smart Leaders Don’t Just Tolerate Distributed Work; They Embrace It
One of my earliest studies of work patterns indicated that on average knowledge workers were spending only about 35 percent of their work time inside their assigned corporate facility. They were...
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Three Simple Rules for Leading Constructive Change
The best definition I’ve ever heard of effective leadership goes something like this: A good leader doesn’t make people do what he (or she) wants; a good leader makes others want what the leader...
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The Four Dimensions of a Successful Meeting
How do you know your meeting has been successful? This question came up during one of the research interviews for my new book (Making Meetings Matter: How Successful Leaders Orchestrate Powerful...
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Orchestrating Effective Communication in the Digital Age
I am both pleased and proud that Jim Horan, the creator of the One Page Business Plan®, wrote a Foreword for my new book, Making Meetings Matter: How Smart Leaders Orchestrate Powerful Conversations in...
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Making YOUR Meetings Matter
Permit me a bit of shameless self-promotion. My new book, Making Meetings Matter: How Smart Leaders Orchestrate Powerful Conversations in the Digital Age, just became available on Amazon.com, and I am...
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Five Reasons There are so Many Bad Meetings
[Note: This article is a brief excerpt from Chapter Two of my new book, Making Meetings Matter: How Smart Leaders Orchestrate Powerful Conversations in the Digital Age (link is to the book’s page on...
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If Something is Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing Wrong
What? Wait a minute! Is that a typo? Am I encouraging you to do good things badly? No, it’s not a typo. And I am definitely not calling for making mistakes on purpose. Let me explain. I’ve just...
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A Debate is not a Discussion, and a Discussion is not a Dialogue
With all the presidential candidate debates filling up the airwaves recently, it’s time to think about what makes for a good conversation. Regrettably, we are not seeing any significant examples of...
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The Seven Dimensions of a Powerful Conversation
Special Note: You are invited to a special (and free) book launch party celebrating the publication of Making Meetings Matter. Join me for an hour of conversation about meetings and collaborative...
View ArticleDavid Coleman Reviews “Making Meetings Matter”
David Coleman, the founder and executive director of Collaborative Strategies, Inc., has just published a highly complimentary review of Making Meetings Matter on CMSWire. Here is a brief excerpt:...
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Making Meetings Matter: An Overview
Are you frustrated by all the unfocused, boring meetings you have to sit through? Do the meetings you attend produce lasting solutions to the challenges you face? Or do you and your staff waste...
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What Do Meetings Have to Do with The Future of Work?
I was recently interviewed about Making Meetings Matter by Dr. Jac Fitz-Enz (“Interviewing Jim Ware”). In the course of our conversation he asked me why I had moved from my long-term focus on the...
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Four Questions to Ask About All Those Meetings
I’ve said it many times: meetings are the very heart of the future of work. Meetings are the way knowledge workers learn, communicate, problem-solve, create, share ideas, influence others, and...
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