Death By Meeting - taking on the oldest and most dreaded complaints in the working world: bad meetings!
June 15, 2006
Are your meetings dull and uninspiring?
Do team members question the usefulness of meetings?
Are critical issues avoided or overlooked during meetings?
If you answered YES to any of the above then your team might be suffering from Death By Meeting syndrome - - you know, your meetings STINK and everyone hates them.
Death By Meeting was written by NY Times best selling author Patrick Lencioni who also wrote a fantastic book entitled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The biggest mistake Lencioni says is that most every team is using just ONE style of meeting to address all issues and it doesn't work. In fact, it can't work.
Think of it this way, when building a beautiful piece of furniture, does the carpenter have just one tool - a hammer - to do all the various jobs? Absolutely not! Having one tool and forcing it to do everything is what a caveman would do.
There are four types of meetings and your team needs to use all four types:
- Daily Check-in
- Weekly Tactical
- Monthly Strategic
- Quarterly Off-site Review
Each meeting requires a different amount of time and each has a different purpose and format. CLICK HERE to view a diagram describing each of the four models. Download an outline of the four meeting types below:
Most teams meet once a week and therefore the weekly meeting is the most misunderstood and abused meeting style. Lencioni calls the weekly meeting a "Weekly Tactical Meeting" and offers a very specific outline for how this meeting should run. CLICK HERE to download a Tactical Meeting Guide (PDF).
Click on the link below to download a simple quiz developed by the author that will help you determine how bad your meetings are:
Download death_by_meetings_quiz.pdf
CLICK HERE for a great Q&A with Patrick Lencioni about his book Death By Meeting
CLICK HERE to read 5 Tips for a Better Meeting by Lencioni.
The IATF Leader As Coach Fast Track Program will help you become an INSPIRATIONAL leader so you can lead inspirational meetings.
I just finished reading his book as well, wrote a post, and am now trying this approach for my team meetings. The Daily Check-ins have been a welcome relief and have cut down on the e-mails!
Posted by: Eric Davis | August 06, 2009 at 09:37 PM