You Can’t Know the Future – But You Can Always Ask “What if?”

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peekingfear_000014658459November 8, 2016, is election day in the United States. This has been the most contentious, drawn-out, and, yes, tedious election in my memory. Everyone I know is glad it is about to be over. No matter what your politics or political values, I am positive that like me you are relieved we’ve finally reached the end of this unpleasant journey.

One inevitable result of this year’s electoral dysfunction (deliberate pun) has been rampant uncertainty about the future. And one of the best indicators of uncertainty is the stock market. The U.S. markets have been unsteady and volatile throughout the year, and foreign markets have generally followed suit.

When we believe the future is uncertain, we often get skittish, nervous, and anxious. In the face of rampant uncertainty most of us hunker down, fall back on old habits, and minimize risk-taking. Read more

Four Questions to Protect Yourself from Lousy, Time-Wasting Meetings

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And, as you know, I even wrote a book about making meetings matter (available on Amazon.com at this link –contact me directly for volume discounts).

Most of my rants have been directed at senior executives and team leaders, because I consider them the most accountable for lousy meetings. After all, it is organizational leaders who set the tone and establish expectations for how things are supposed to work. [continue reading...]

Three Steps for Increasing Your Meetings ROI

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Women Hand Writing Roi Return On Investment With Black Marker OOver the last several weeks I have been exploring several basic ways to improve your organizational ROI for meetings.

Last week I talked about two complementary approaches to improving meeting efficiency:

Holding fewer meetings
Conducting shorter meetings

(See “The Business Case for Making Your Meetings Matter (Part 3)” for details).

Today I am focusing on how distributed meetings can reduce costs in dramatic ways. I then conclude by proposing an integrated, three-phase approach for jacking up that ROI.

Reducing Costs: Let Me Count the Ways

There are many kinds of savings that come from greater use of distributed meetings. Note that some of these benefits accrue to organizations, some to individuals, and some to society more broadly. Read more