The Hamster Revolution for Meetings
Issue No. 146 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting reminds you that 43 percent of your time in the Meetings Bucket is wasted, but this week’s book includes a case study that improved meeting results by 38 percent. Would you spend a few bucks on a book that helped you have less, but more productive meetings? And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Meeting Reduction Tools
This book is a no-brainer purchase. First, calculate the hourly salary and benefits cost of everyone that attended the last staff or department meeting. Did you get your money’s worth out of the meeting? If not, there’s help.
Try the P.O.S.E. meeting reduction system in this week’s book: Priority, Objenda (objective and agenda), Shorten and E-vailable. The “Priority” question asks, “Does this meeting relate to my top goals for the year?” Amen and amen!
“How to meet less and get more done” (the book’s sub-title) is all it took for me to jump in. With a foreword by Ken Blanchard and co-authored by Vicki Halsey, VP of applied learning at the Ken Blanchard Companies (she’s a great presenter also), my expectations were high and the 130-pages, including a case study, did not disappoint. It’s in the classic business story format, with large print, so it’s easy to read and easy to implement.
Would you put someone in the pulpit on Sunday morning who has never preached before or been trained as a speaker? If not, why would you ask someone to lead a meeting—using up valuable and limited staff time and payroll—who has never been trained in meeting facilitation?
To order this week’s book from Amazon, click on this title: The Hamster Revolution for Meetings: How to Meet Less and Get More Done, by Mike Song, Vicki Halsey and Tim Burress.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Pair off in groups of two and ask, “How much training have you had on leading or attending meetings?” What book(s) have you read that have made you a better meeting facilitator or attender?
2) If you could change three things about a meeting you attended last week, what would they be?
Transformation or Tournaments? - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Donor Bucket, Chapter 11, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to measure your current fundraising menu of activities against not what works—but against a biblical standard of stewardship. Martin Luther said, "People go through three conversions: The conversion of their head, their heart and their pocketbook. Unfortunately, not all at the same time."
In other words, does your golf tournament, auction, donor premium and other “giving incentives” move donors and prospects towards a “revolution in generosity” (per Wes Willmer’s excellent book) or does it reinforce an inappropriate exchange between the donor and the organization? It’s not easy, but transformation never is.
For more help, check out the Donor Bucket page at my Management Buckets website and note the book recommendations including A Revolution in Generosity: Transforming Stewards to Be Rich Toward God, edited by Wes Willmer, who was just named the new senior vice president at ECFA.
NEXT CEO DIALOGUES:
• August 28, 2009 – CEO Dialogues 1-Day Roundtable (Dana Point, California)
• October 1, 2009 – CEO Dialogues 1-Day Roundtable (New York City)
Click here for more information.
MANAGEMENT BUCKETS WORKSHOP:
• October 20-21, 2009 – Mastering the Management Buckets Workshop Experience (Orange, County, California)
Click here for more information.