Speed Thinking is for time-poor individuals, groups & teams that want to become more productive, innovative and energised. Stop procrastinating & just start!
17 May 2012 Kath Walters Luke Sayers wants the accounting professionals and partners at PwC to focus more on clients, according to a newspaper report. The incoming chief executive has instructed his minions not to hold internal meetings between 10am and 4pm and, instead, to spend that time attending to clients. Sayers also wants people to…
A Blitz and meeting are two different tools that are suited for different purposes, much like a hammer and a spade are used for a specific requirement. Together they form a more complete tool kit. A Blitz is 15 minutes or less; a meeting usually 1 hour. A Blitz is 6 people or less; a…
For most people giving a presentation is one of their greatest fears. I suspect most people can handle this but what they really worry about is being ‘put on the spot.’ It could be an unexpected or difficult question. Or a comment or interjection from the audience. How to handle this situation? Here are some…
We have all been there — a conference, meeting or workshop where the presenter is on his 60th slide and wondering where the energy of the group has gone. This thought occurred to me recently when I attended the leadership conference of a major service brand. In the room were the 30 best and brightest…
I have just finished reading Richard Branson’s latest book; Business Stripped Bare (Virgin Books, 2009). One of the more impressive aspects of this book is that it is written in such a jargon-free way. Here is is the nuts and bolts of Branson’s view of business and there is a not a core competencies, strategic…
Most meetings run for an hour. Have you ever stopped and thought what else you could do in that hour? Perhaps finish early and go to the gym or spend more time with your wife or kids? Perhaps at work you could finish that report rather than bringing it home or writing it on the…
Q. What are the advantages of meetings? They are social (and we are social animals) and when used well can inform, discuss, communicate, prioritize and sometimes are a useful forum to solve problems and make decisions. Q. What are the disadvantages of meetings? They are time-consuming, slow, rigid, lack accountability, there are too many…
With more and more work being done in groups or teams it is timely to raise the issue of group-think. This concept was first explored and named by Irving Janis, a research psychologist from Yale University (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink for more of an in-depth discussion) . His original definition of Groupthink was; “A mode of thinking that people…
I have been writing a lot about meetings lately because I believe that the principles of Speed Thinking can be used to design fewer, faster and better meetings. However the more I research meetings the less I seem to understand. This important aspect of organisational life is replete with an array of baffling paradoxes. For example: 1. Managers…
This is an often over-looked question. If you knew the costs of a meeting than you might be able to determine (albeit roughly) the Return on Investment for every meeting. There are (at least) two ways of working out the cost of a meeting: 1. The Internal Cost For example, let’s imagine a group of managers…
