Boring Meetings Suck E-Book

Jon Petz

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 267

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

The guide that proves your meetings don't have to suck! There's a big dull elephant in the boardroom: this meeting! Most of the millions of meetings held in the world today are a monumental waste of time and talent. Worse still, most of the so-called solutions and books for boring meetings are twice as boring. Boring Meetings Suck provides tips and tactics to deliver "Get-In, Get-It-Done, or Get-Out" style meetings, while also tackling what most prefer to avoid; that you don't have to BE in charge of a meeting to TAKE charge of a meeting. This entertaining and take-no-prisoners guide is full of easily deployed SRDs?Suckification Reduction Devices?that will help you make your next meeting both efficient and effective. * Empowers attendees to politely speak up and get a meeting back on track, or graciously get out, without being fired * Shows how hosts can capitalize on technology, learning to crowd-source problems and increase participation * Defines surefire methods to get meetings to start and end on time and not have the speaker read the slides * STOPS over-invitation syndrome * The author has appeared before many major corporate clients, and was named a "Top Business Professional Under 40" by American City Business Journals Your meetings do not have to bore, nor must they suck. Instead, get the winning techniques in Boring Meetings Suck, and make your meetings awesome in their engagement and productivity, or stop having them!

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Foreword

Agenda Item 1: Boring Meetings Suck . . . so Why Do We Have 'Em?

Hey, Not All Meetings Suck

Nothing More Boring Than a Boring Book about Boring Meetings

What's in It for You?

How Do You Use This Book? Jump in and Read the Agenda Item You Need

Are You Ready to Make Meetings Rock?

Agenda Item 2: Better Meetings and Conventions through Technology . . . but Please Proceed with Caution

The Very Basics

Enhanced Meeting Technologies

For the More Adventurous

For the Outright Daring

Agenda Item 3: How to Be a Meeting Superhero . . . in 10 Minutes or Less

Part 1: New Meeting Styles

Part 2: Speed Meetings

Agenda Item 4: Why Everyday Office Meetings Suck . . . Skip This and You're Screwed

Your Preparation Sucks

Having No Agenda Sucks

Your Follow-Up Sucks

Scheduling a Meeting Sucks

Warning: Problem Solving at 8 AM and 6 PM Sucks

The Overinvitation Sucks

Starting Late Sucks

“Dogs Who Get Off the Leash” Suck

Conference Rooms Suck

Agenda Item 5: Your Presentation Sucks . . . Really, Yours Sucks

PowerPoint Sucks

“Um…aah” Sucks

PowerPoint Really Sucks

Monotone Speeches and Movements Suck

Unreadable Slides Suck

Cutesy Moving Graphics Suck

Agenda Item 6: Make the Best of Sucky Meetings . . . or Get Out While You Can

Never-Ending Meetings Suck

Déjà Meetings Suck

Project and Update Meetings Suck

Scattered Showers’ Meetings Suck

Conference Calls Suck

Sales Team Meetings Suck

Online or Virtual Meetings Suck

Videoconferencing Sucks

Friday Meetings Suck

Agenda Item 7: Big Meetings Suck Even Bigger . . . Get Some Help or Suffer the Consequences

Poorly Planned Meetings Suck

Annual Meetings, Conventions, Teambuilding, and Company Retreats Suck

Bad Audio Sucks

Distractions Suck

Guest Speakers Suck

No Introduction and Bad Introductions Suck

Bad Emcees Suck

Agenda Item 8: Heed This . . . or Continue to Suck for the Next Millennium

Consider Not Having One

What You Can Do When Stuck in a Boring Meeting

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

Copyright © 2011 by Jon Petz. All rights reserved.

Bore No More!™ is a registered trademark of Jon Petz © 2010.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Petz, Jon.

Boring meetings suck: get more out of your meetings, or get out of more meetings / Jon Petz.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-00462-3 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-118-04382-0 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-04383-7 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-04384-4 (ebk)

1. Business meetings. I. Title.

HF5734.5.P475 2011

658.4 056—dc22

2010049550

Boring Meetings Suck is dedicated to the ladies who allow my wonderful life to have meaning and not suck: Stacey, Sydney, Mackenzie, and Madison.

It is also dedicated to all those like-minded souls who have ever been in meetings that were a colossal waste of time, energy, creativity, and money and are willing to do something about it.

I further dedicate this to three special people who have made a tremendous impact on my personal and professional life in ways greater than they ever will realize. Thank you, Larry and Cindy H., and Jeffrey D.

Foreword

What's that loud sucking sound?

Oh…it's your MEETING.

You'd think you'd know by now.

Meetings suck.

And BORING meetings?

They suck the most.

When Jon Petz and I began collaborating on the original version of this book in 2006, we decided to poke fun at some of the worst meetings we'd ever had the misfortune to attend. We offered humorous suggestions on how to improve a bad situation—all the boring meetings you have to facilitate and attend.

But you weren't listening.

You went right on having your boring meetings, inviting even more attendees and putting them into a coma with your pointless PowerPoint slides.

What choice did Jon have?

You've forced him to create a bigger, badder, louder alarm clock to wake you up to all the time, energy, creativity, and money you're wasting by meeting in boring and banal ways.

Consider this revised and updated version of Boring Meetings Suck a paginated intervention—a tough-love text to help you help yourself. Jon has added chapters about using technology to reduce the number of meetings, identifying meeting types, and helping you to decide whether a meeting is even necessary in the first place. (That's right. Nobody said you had to hold meetings at all!)

But take it slow.

The information is this book flies in the face of how the corporate world has trained you. At first, use the Boring Meetings Sucks SRDs (Suckification Reduction Devices) to lower the suck level of your meetings. Once you're comfortable doing that, then strive to eliminate that sucking sound altogether.

I suggest you give this book to your boss (personally or anonymously), hand it to anyone in charge of a committee, or conveniently leave it in plain sight on the conference room table. Most important, keep your own copy close by and follow the advice within. You'll see how it can benefit meeting attendees just as much as meeting facilitators! Yes, even as an attendee, you can use these tips to suggest meeting alternatives when possible and speed up the meetings you can't avoid altogether.

So then what's that loud sucking sound?

Must be someone else's meeting…

—Don The Idea Guy Snyder

www.dontheideaguy.com

Agenda Item 1

Boring Meetings Suck…so Why Do We Have 'Em?

Why do so many meetings have to suck…

So badly?

So consistently?

How many millions upon millions of people are wondering every day: Why am I stuck in this meeting? I have far better things to do than listen to people put in their two cents several times over. And how on earth do I get out of here?

They're also asking—

Why was I even invited?Why is this presenter reading PowerPoint slides? Couldn't this person have just mailed the presentation to everyone and skipped the meeting?Why is this meeting going a full hour even though we finished the agenda in 35 minutes?Why is this conference call being constantly interrupted with the question, “Who just joined?”Why is this meeting wasting thousands of dollars of human capital by endlessly talking about problems but never solving them?Why is the boss holding a meeting to get our input, but all the while wearing the intended solution on his or her sleeve?Why is the dreaded annual meeting a time we're told what we're doing wrong and preached to all day? Don't they ever want to hear from us?

Ever felt like this? Then you're in the right spot!

Where did we, as humans, go wrong? I think it goes all the way back to Adam meeting Eve. The objective of their meeting—to stay away from that fruit—was never clearly identified as an action item. And not much has changed since then.