In the Smithsonian Lon Safko, Meeting Guru Dr. Rick Brinkman and Gig Economies Brian Ludwick

The School for Startups Radio Interviews Meeting Guru Dr. Rick Brinkman

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INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY INTERVIEWS DR. RICK ON MEETINGS

HOW TO WORK FEWER HOURS AND GET MORE DONE: CONTOL MEETINGS

Rick Brinkman, author of "Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand: Meet Less and Do More," quotes author and columnist Dave Barry:

"If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings.' "

A 2015 Harris Poll survey found that the No. 1 obstacle to getting work done is having to attend meetings. A study by the Wharton Center for Applied Research showed senior and middle managers felt 44% of their meetings were unproductive.

Brinkman: "As a manager, if you free your employees from meetings they don't need to attend and make the ones they do shorter, focused and more productive, conservatively it would be the equivalent of increasing your workforce by 25% without spending a penny."

Ask why. There is only one legitimate reason for a meeting, Brickman says, and that's so people can interact on a particular subject.

"If you're holding a meeting just to present information, you're wasting your time," he adds. Better to put that in a memo.

Create meeting schedules. Each meeting agenda item should include a title, time frame, process, and two essential items, purpose and focus, Brinkman says.

"Purpose is a two-sentence statement explaining why this item is so important," he continues. "Focus is what you want from the group regarding this item."

Brinkman adds: "The meeting must start on time whether or not everyone is there and end on time whether or not the agenda has been accomplished."

>>> READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Patricia Raskin Interviews Dr. Rick Brinkman on the Secret to Having Great Meetings

Patricia interviews Dr. Rick Brinkman, best selling author and professional keynote speaker on Conscious Communication® expertise. He discusses his new book, Dealing With Meetings You Can't Stand, where he provides key insights into the human behaviors that lead to unsuccessful meetings, along with psychologically-based tactics for addressing them. Filled with helpful checklists and change-making strategies, Brinkman's book will turn the most boring conference room into a fast-moving model of efficiency, energy, and enthusiasm.

Here is a the audio recording of the 30 minute interview:

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Master Meetings with These 5 Tips

My article as published in B2C with 3 million unique visitors a month.

Business leaders always look for ways to boost engagement and productivity, but few of us would start with meetings. A 2015 Harris Poll found that going to meetings is the biggest obstacle to getting work done. Many of us see meeting as a necessary evil. For most C-suite executives, meetings devour 40% of our worktime: focusing on them even more is not exactly appealing.

But creating better meetings is a highly effective way to make your people happier, energized and more productive — without increasing their hours or salary. Here’s one simple but effective approach with an immense payoff: Don’t think of it as a meeting. Instead, think of being on an airplane flight, with the meeting participants as the passengers.

Confined in a small space together for a designated period of time, passengers are subject to possibly rough weather, unpleasant neighbors, a fatigued pilot, or worse. But we all have to fly. It’s a useful analogy since that’s what it feels like, most of the time, to be in a meeting. Imagine your people’s surprise when you can make the “flight” a whole lot more bearable in 5 practical steps:

1. Question its necessity. Start planning the meeting by asking if it’s even necessary. As a leader, you sometimes challenge teams to justify the purpose behind an action. First identify the meeting’s purpose, then ask if it’s best served by a meeting, or there’s another way.

1. Measure the cost. Meetings all have a cost. There’s the cost of what people are paid to sit in the meeting and there’s the price of all the work they’re not doing because they’re in a meeting. Knowing the cost, is the meeting worth it?

1. Create an agenda.The meeting agenda is a flight plan, defining where you’re going and how long it should take. To keep the meeting on course, break the agenda into items that have 5 key points: title, timeframe, process, purpose and focus. Process could be “discussion, then Q&A.” “Purpose” should be two sentences arguing the item’s importance. “Focus” is the outcome you want from the group. Distribute the agenda in advance.

1. Watch the clock. Even if people arrive late or you don’t hit every agenda item, end the meeting on time. It sends a powerful message: you respect everyone’s time. Designating a timekeeper can generate useful data on how accurate the agenda was, and help refine it for next time. Being released from a meeting as promised makes people far more willing to attend another one.
2. Define the process.Without a clear meeting process, people resort to stress behaviors —talking out of turn, making snarky comments, or not contributing until the meeting is already over. Defuse them ahead of time with these three tools:

Control the air traffic. Use a whiteboard, projector, or computer and screen to keep everyone focused. Write the subject at hand in a “topic” box, the process for discussing it in the “process box,” and don’t let people deviate.

Establish a speaking order.Either make it voluntary with a show of hands, or make it circular, going around the room. When everyone knows they’ll get their turn to speak they become better listeners. Setting a time limit will prevent tangents and rambling.

Use a flight recorder. Visually recording everything people say cuts back on their need to repeat themselves to drive their point home. The visual collection of everyone’s ideas also enables the group to achieve holographic thinking — with a greater, more detailed understanding of the subject and higher-quality ideas and solutions.

Frustration kills enagement quickly — but feeling gratified and energized by a well-planned, well-led meeting builds it just as fast. Follow these five steps and you’ll see the difference for yourself. Instead of dreading meetings, your people will look forward to them, and colleagues may likely ask how you did it. We all prefer a smooth flight, after all.

Read more at https://www.business2community.com/leadership/master-meetings-5-tips-01965924#e52eFSuLaM1YT1Rs.99

US Daily Review of "Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand"

Here is the full review as published in the USDailyreview.com

If you want to make everyone on your team at work feel like you’ve gotten absolutely nowhere, just hold a meeting. Meetings have a knack for bringing out the worst in us, from disengagement to irritation to that post-mortem eyeroll at the watercooler. Yet we can’t stop having them — and shouldn’t we have them? Dr. Rick Brinkman’s new book, Dealing with Meetings You Can’t Stand: Meet Less and Do More proves there’s a far better and more productive way to hold meetings, and it lays out a proven approach in a highly entertaining style.

Brinkman is an expert at “conscious communicating” with a roster of previous books, including Dealing with People You Can’t Stand. His new book is filled with similarly clever illustrations and charts, witty phrases, first-person tales, and it’s both a great read and an effective method. First of all, the next time you plan a meeting, don’t even think of it as a meeting. Instead, think of a meeting as a plane flight — and that you’re responsible for everyone having a safe, pleasant, on-time journey. All those people sitting around the table or in those little thumbnail images on your remote meeting app are your passengers. And you can take this analogy as far as you want it to, since Brinkman enthusiastically covers all the angles: metaphorical hijacking, too much baggage, unpleasant passengers, confusing directions, headwinds, and the consequences of landing too late for people to make their next“flights.”

Back up a moment, because rather than spoil the fun — and it is a fun read, and very refreshingly so —  let’s just talk about the why we have to have meetings in the first place. The reality is, we don’t, according to Brinkman. Most of us don’t ask if we should even be having a meeting, since we’ve come to believe that meetings are a part of the day like rain is a part of weather. But Brinkman insists we do ask why. we’re calling that meeting. If it’s to present information, he asserts, don’t do it. Meetings are not the time to present the new 25 page instruction manual or corporate identity report. They’re the time to talk about it. And there are just way too many pointless meetings being held, he says.

There’s a key difference between information and interaction, in other words. If you’re holding the meeting to get everyone discussing and strategizing about that document, terrific. First, send the materials out well ahead of time, and make it clear you expect it to be reviewed and understood before people walk in the door. This may well ring a bell with some readers, and it should: Brinkman is a master at illuminating just why common sense should prevail and doesn’t when it comes to gathering us all together. He also explains the immense importance of a well-thought-out agenda, which should include every single item to be covered, realistic time allotments for each one, the purpose of discussing them, and also what is expected of the people talking about them.

The bottom line is control: of time, of discussion, and mostly, of people. If you want to control the meeting, you have to frame it clearly, set expectations, and have tools in place to help rein in the variables, such as that “what exactly are we talking about here” confusion that makes everyone shift a little farther back in their seats. Brinkman provides savvy and subtle ways to control those disruptive personalities that tend to hijack the goings-on. We’ve all been there to listen to the ramblings of a Know It All or a Think They Know It All — as the author labels them. We’ve all heaved a sigh when someone starts seizing control of the discussion because they don’t have faith in the ability of the facilitator — a bullying personality type Brinkman calls a Tank. Those naysaying headshakers who frown endlessly at every single idea? They’re judges, notes Brinkman.

As guidebooks go, this is a good one to set prominently in your office and refer to frequently. It’s meant to provide you with better techniques that you can improve on with time. The more you craft a workable agenda, the better you’ll get at it, for instance. And the more people see you able to defuse the disruptions, the less disruptive they become. Master the tools in this book and use them to run your next meeting, and you’ll feel a remarkable transformation take place: people may actually ask you when the next meeting is. But if you’re not the one in charge, don’t despair. Brinkman provides a script for making tactful yet convincing suggestions for trying a better method. In this book, he’s thought of everything.

Learn more about Dr. Rick Brinkman at drrickbrinkman.com

Blog Critics Review of Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand

Book Review: 'Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand: Meet Less and Do More,' By Dr. Rick Brinkman

By Patricia Gale, BLOGCRITICS.ORG Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, September 10, 2017

We've all suffered through the tedious, hour-wasting, headache-inducing trap of being stuck in a meeting we can't stand. Claustrophobia of the worst kind sets in, and instead of being productive, we feel practically comatose. Every wonder why? The reasons are laid out in this engaging and smart new book by Dr. Rick Brinkman, Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand: Meet Less and Do More (McGraw Hill, 2017).

Brinkman is a master at helping people tackle the worst sides of working - before Meetings, he authored Dealing with People You Can't Stand, which is a global bestseller, translated into 25 languages. That's no surprise, given the title: Brinkman is a no-nonsense communicator who approaches the most common ailments of the workplace with equal parts empathy and humor - in Meetings he quotes noted cartoonist Dave Barry in the beginning. As with People, this book on meetings is fascinating, entertaining, and yet makes perfect sense, offering tangible strategies for effectively changing the game.

Brinkman has divided up the four main trouble spots that can turn a well-intentioned roundtable into a train wreck: preparation, people, process, and time. Of preparation, for instance, when a meeting is called without a clear agenda or purpose - or starts with "any other business?" - or has either not enough people or too many people present, it's a recipe for disaster.

Of people, the problems are as varied as difficult personalities: people who talk over each other, people who refuse to talk in the meeting but have plenty to say afterwards, people who are unprepared, who waffle, who snicker under their breaths, who know everything. Process and time are equally illuminated: readers will no doubt have a number of laughs as well as ah-hah moments.

What the good Dr. Brinkman does that sets this book apart from the dozens of "how-to" business books out there is provide a tangible fix. His very apt, clever, workable analogy works from start to finish to helps us reframe every aspect of a meeting - and land safely and on time. Think of a meeting like a long-distance jet flight, he suggests, including having a clear flight plan, a designated Air Traffic Controller, and a place to park tangential discussions - on the tarmac, of course. The goal: an efficient, quick, enthusiastic plane ride with little turbulence that arrives exactly as planned. I'll be it works.

Another plus to this very savvy handbook are the "Great Moments in Meetings" tales - light-hearted but revealing true-life accounts of meetings that actually worked. The upshot is that successful meetings are anything but free-for-alls: a group of engineers diligently place their cell phones in a basket as they arrive; an executive locks the door when the meeting starts so latecomers can't come in.

On the other hand, when people drone on in a global conference call, it's noticed. When someone acts disruptive, that's noticed too. The point is that we all know when a meeting isn't working. Now we also know why - and how to fix it.

Brinkman brings so much to the table with this book that it feels like an incredibly consolidated encyclopedia of how to plan a meeting, have a meeting, and follow up after a meeting. It's also a book on why you really don't need to necessarily have a meeting in the first place.

It's clearly, breezily, insightfully written, tightly organized, and charmingly illustrated. And it's sure to be an asset to anyone who has to deal with meetings. Read it and follow it, and it's likely your people will thank you - and then ask you to borrow the book. I recommend telling them to buy it themselves.

For more on Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dealing with Meetings You Can't Stand, visit rickbrinkman.com.

View the original article on blogcritics.org

Young Upstarts Love Dr. Rick's 5 Secrets to Great Meetings

YoungUpstarts, a site of entrepreneurs and small business with over 200,000 monthly visitors.

Dr. Rick has five tactics for making sure a meeting is a productive, efficient, energy-building session. These are proven strategies that have helped keep meetings on track for my clients, including NASA, Boeing, and many Fortune 500 companies.

Here’s how to transform a meeting from a waste of time to a triumph in 5 simple steps:

1. Identify the purpose of the meeting.

The one legitimate reason for a meeting is so people can interact on a particular subject. If you’re holding the meeting just to present information, reconsider. According to the Cambridge Psychological Society, people remember only 9 percent of what was said — and recall half of it inaccurately —24 hours after a meeting. Also consider if the meeting is necessary or will cost too much: What is its time/benefit ratio? There’s the direct cost of what people are paid, and the costs of tasks not tackled because people are in a meeting.

Read more ...

BOOK REVIEW: A savvy guidebook about the problems with meetings — and how to fix them

How many of us have had the unpleasant experience of being forced to sit through a meeting that feels like a complete waste of time? Or been in the position of having to run that meeting, and helplessly lost control of a discussion or agenda? Or wondered if you walked into the room conference room when a “participation mandatory” invitation brought you to a wooden, one-way presentation? These situations happen all too frequently: meetings are perhaps the worst part of working in certain places. But this terrific book, Dealing with Meetings You Can’t Stand: Meet Less and Do More (McGraw Hill, 2017), can help. I’d love to see it on everyone’s bookcase, to be honest.

Dealing with Meetings is by Dr. Rick Brinkman, an expert on workplace communication and difficult personalities. Like his previous book — Dealing with People You Can’t Stand — it’s humorous and practical, light in tone and filled with tips. People is an international top seller and has been translated in 25 languages. By the looks of it, Meetings has the goods to follow in its footsteps — including a hilariously apt quote by Dave Barry at the beginning: “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.'” By setting the reader up with a chuckle and not a groan, the author makes us feel instantly more optimistic about improving dysfunctional conference calls, near-silent roundtable discussions, metronomic powerpoints and the like. It’s not an accident: Brinkman is an expert at the psychology behind how we behave why we do.

All problems with meetings fall into four categories, he asserts...  READ MORE RECOMMENDED

5 Ways to Make Meetings Productive, Efficient and a Win for Everybody

ARTICLE FROM CEOWORLD.COM
by Dr. Rick Brinkman

C-suite executives spend 40% of their workweek in meetings, according to The Wall Street Journal. Harvard Business Review found that 15 percent of an organization’s total collective time is spent in meetings. Just how much of that time is effective depends largely on how the meeting is run — but top managers and CEOs don’t get there by wasting their company’s time. They use strategies that maximize productivity, minimize frustration, and end with people motivated and happy. And that approach can increase people’s productive work time by a full 20 percent.

If you want to turn a meeting from a potential obstacle to a catalyst, here’s a useful approach: think of the meeting as an airline flight. Imagine the people at meetings as passengers on a plane, trapped together in a confined space for a period of time. Consider what could happen to mar the outcome: take-off is delayed, the flight path strays off course, the airplane hits turbulence delay. The result could be a bumpy ride that lands too late for passengers to make their connecting flights — or next meetings.

As a leader, here are five effective strategies for taking the meeting from beginning to end — and coming to a safe and productive landing. I call it the Meeting Jet Process:  
READ MORE HERE at CEOWORLD.COM