Escape Meeting Hell!

ESCAPE
MEETING
HELLBY: BRADY GILCHRIST @REMOTIVATION

Anyone who plans a meeting
without a clear purpose, agenda or
conclusion is a thief who steals
time.
© 2013 Brady Gilchrist / Personal Use Only. Commercial Use Prohibited Without License

Billions of dollars of
productivity are
shredded every year
because people attend
poorly organized
meetings that in many
cases never needed to
happen.

Fake Awake: The
condition of pretending
to pay attention in a
pointless meeting.
We have all done it. It’s what happens
when we really have someplace BETTER
to be. It happens WAY to often.

Many team meetings could be
replaced with group email and
efﬁcient delegation.
It’s been my experience as an executive that
people who are addicted to holding meetings for
everything are usually those lacking essential
management skills.
Think what needs to be communicated and if it can be
done without a meeting and achieve the same results do
that. Meeting should intrigue not irritate.

Modern electronic calendar
programs encourage people to
meet in one hour increments when
in reality many meetings need only
exist as a five minute chat.
To speed up efficiency try convincing your company to have an
office hours policy - which means no formal meetings during a
particular time frame and that folks are free to wander and ask
questions as long as the conversations take no more than five to
ten minutes.
Just like in university - your profs had
office hours and it worked.

Those electronic calendars murder
productivity.
We are a nation of people who are
trigger happy meeting planners
who ﬁre off mass invites
indiscriminately.
We do it not because everyone needs to be in the
room but because it’s so easy.

Focus is easiest to achieve when
the signal to noise ratio is at its
lowest.
Useless meetings dial up the static
and dial down our ability to act.
Static interferes with your ability to
be great at what you do and worse
it can seriously confuse and
misdirect teams

Heed The Magic Of “What”
Answer these questions when you are
contemplating hosting a meeting and it will
help you conduct brilliant meetings.

Five Simple “What’s” of Good Meetings.
What is the outcome desired from this
meeting and decisions required.1
What is the maximum time required for this
meeting to achieve agreement or the desired
outcome.
What do the participants need to know before
and during the meeting that will enable action.
4
What team members MUST attend to
facilitate the desired outcome.2
3
What alternatives are there to this meeting. If
there are no alternatives have the meeting.
5

This is the most important question you
must know the answer to.
What is the outcome
desired from this
meeting and decisions
required.
Clarity on this question is the key to a
both useful meeting and a beneﬁcial
outcome.
1

Reality check.
If I was personally paying the
hourly rate for everyone in the
room who do I really want in the
room.
Don’t invite those you would not want to pay for.

Meeting Types.
There are basic meeting types each
with it’s own rules for being
successful.
Knowing how to deliver and lead
each type of meeting will make you
a meeting superstar.

The 10 Meeting Types.
1 The Brieﬁng
2 The Status
3 The Delegation
4 The Resolution
5 The Brainstorm
6 The Emergency
7 The Collaboration
8 The Celebration
9 The Debrieﬁng
10 The Presentation

Once we know what kind
of meeting we are having
it’s up to the organizer to
create focus.

An agenda is the map that
keeps meetings moving
forward.
It does not need to be complicated but
it does need to be considered, concise
and shared before the meeting.
The Agenda should resemble the ﬁve
questions of what.

1. Clear purpose of the
meeting and the type
of meeting you are
hosting.
Agenda Content.

2. Very clear agenda
and clear timing for
each item.
Agenda Content.

3. An attendee list that is
essential to accomplish
the objectives for the
meeting.
Agenda Content.

4. Note taker to record
activity and record any
actions that need to be
assigned.
Record it if you want but never let great
thoughts vanish forever.
Agenda Content.

5. Follow up. Actions need
accoutability. Someone
needs to assume the
responsibility for this.
Agenda Content.

1
2
3
4
5
Clear purpose
Detailed Agenda
Essential Attendees
Note Takers
Follow-up

When the organizer has not made
the effort to think through purpose
and produce an agenda, this
meeting is likely a time waster.
Being thoughtful is the antidote.

We owe it to our colleagues to be
ultral professional in planning and
conducting our interactions.
All leaders must be strong links. It’s our job to
make certain we hold things together.

Don’t be rude. If you are in a
meeting be in the meeting. This is
not a time to be doing other things.
As a C-Level exec it always used to drive me nuts to see
people doing other things. On more than a few occasions
I’ve asked the non attentive to leave. Unfortunately you
have to be the highest ranking person in the room to pull
that stunt. Lead by example folks. Too many senior
managers show up and tune out. It’s really not cool.
Your collegues deserve your attention.

If this is such simple
stuff why do so many
ignore it?
SCARY reason: Many managers have no idea
how to encourage true focus. It’s such a simple
ﬁx. In all honesty this stuff can make or break
your career.

Follow these basic ideas
and you will be running
great meetings.
Great meetings empower, motivate,
engage and encourage great
outcomes.

and now for my
shameless Pug Plug.

I teach this stuff to help
companies work better.
brady@avoidmeetinghell.com
If you are interested in seeing what we can do to
boost productivity check us out or drop me a
line.
avoidmeetinghell.com
Thanks for watching. Happy Meeting!

©2013 Brady Gilchrist
Avoidmeetinghell.com / remotivate.org
For Personal Use Only. Commercial Use Prohibited Without License

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