Reading Recommendation: Death by Meeting

All this talk about wasting time with unproductive meetings brought to mind one of my favorite books:  Death by Meeting, by Patrick M. Lencioni.

From Publishers Weekly: 

Lencioni’s message comes across loud and clear—meetings should be interactive, not passive, and they should be structured (i.e., issues of immediate importance should be discussed in “weekly tactical” meetings, and issues that will fundamentally affect the business should be addressed in “monthly strategic” meetings).

The book is a quick read.  The ridiculous meeting situations would be funny — if they weren’t so true.  I gave the book as a gift to a friend after hearing him complain about all the time he wasted going to meetings that had no agenda, no focus, were never kept on task, and that he believed he did not even need to attend.  Anyone who has suffered through a meeting will relate to these scenarios all too closely.

Whether or not you can implement some of the changes suggested in the book, you’re sure to get ideas that can impact your approach to, and behavior in, meetings.  With that in mind, remember to lead by example.