Finally! The Secret To Short, Powerful Meetings!

Want to learn the secret to short, powerful meetings finally?

It’s not what you think.

Terrible meetings are a perennial problem and productivity killer. You know this is true.

Unfortunately, most of the advice you read contains rules for controlling the people in the meetings. Agendas with hard time slots. Time keepers. Rules about late arrivals and cell phones. This emphasis on rules perpetuates the myth that the problem with meetings is the behavior of the participants!

But participants are not the problem.

In 99% of meetings, the problem is a lack of clarity.

If you start a meeting without knowing very specifically what must be different when it is done and how you will get there, of course you will waste time! You won't even know whom to invite to your meeting!

And if you bring a bunch of busy people together without a clear purpose, including some with no clue as to why they have been invited, you ought not be surprised by a rambling conversation that accomplishes little with a dollop of bad behavior!

Let's quit creating rules to control others and start creating clarity!

The Old Way:

• Invite the usual crowd.
• Create an agenda with the usual nouns and Treadmill Verbs.
• Wander into the meeting with round robins or an invitation akin to opening the barn door such as, “Would you like to start or should I?”
• Spend most of your energy trying to corral the conversation.
• Dream up some action items at the end to justify the time invested.

With the Power of Clarity:

Don’t call a meeting until you are absolutely sure:

• What needs to be different when you are done,
• How you are going to achieve that goal, and
• Who is essential to that accomplishment.

Which way do you think works best?

Want more tips such as this? Read my book, The Power of Clarity.