I am fortunate to have worked on a team led by Anne Cawley early in my career. Experience working with her enabled me to know, rather than speculate, about the power of an effective manager. What elements of her management style made her effective? Congruence: She conversed with members of her team as equals rather than … [Read more...]
Types of Meetings
There are different types of meetings. Each type requires a different structures and supports a different number of participants. For instance, a status (feedforward) meeting has no limit to the number of participants while a decision-making meeting produces results faster with a small number of participants. If you want to help your teams have … [Read more...]
BOGSAT Intervention
You have heard of the fog of war. But have you heard of a BOGSAT -- Big Official Group Sitting Around Talking? It's a disease that infects organizations. Let me share with you a story about a BOGSAT intervention. I am an expert at leading meetings. I have a natural talent for following and guiding a meeting so the participants produce results … [Read more...]
Start Meeting Punctually?
Twenty percent of the participants arrive late to the weekly meeting you lead. What do I recommend you do? It depends. Do you arrive late? If you do, I recommend that you change your behavior. Participants respond to leadership cues. You are enabling participants to excuse their behavior when you demonstrate the meeting isn't important … [Read more...]
Rethinking Stand-Up Meetings, Part 2
I argued in my first article about stand-up meetings that the right participants were the key to a successful meeting rather than whether the participants were standing up or sitting down. Despite my dislike for forcing people to stand up, I mentioned in that article my positive regard for other elements of the standard stand-up meeting. What … [Read more...]