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While I was in my degree program at Haskayne School of Business, the University of Calgary, we had to watch a film, Meetings, Bloody Meetings, starring John Cleese, and that stuck with me. I was reminded of that film as I read, Read This Before Our Next Meetingby Al Pittampalli.

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However, meetings are vital to ensure that critical decisions get made in organizations, and teams are working effectively on complex projects. Therefore, the word meeting should be reserved for decision-making.  There should be no meetings to dispense information; instead, the organization should create a culture where its people read memos. There should be no working meetings, however, teams that need to work together, should do exactly that. A meeting is not for conversations. And when you have a meeting, only those who really need to be there should attend.Read This Before Our Next Meeting is one of the books in Seth Godin’s Domino Project, that I received for free, and finally got around to reading it – sure glad I did. It can be read in an hour, and it’s a little book packed with a lot of punch because it gives you a lot to think about. And if you take it to heart, you will literally not look at meetings the same way again. The author suggests that we should redefine our definition of a meeting because there are too many meetings, and most of them are bad.

Although brainstorming is important to create many options for decision-making, you do not call a meeting for it. Instead, you have a brainstorming session where people free themselves to let their minds roam, leading to breakthrough thinking.

Pittampalli offers ten ground rules for brainstorming. I particularly like ground rule number seven – “Let’s have a clear focus. Make sure the brainstorm is free, but not a free-for-all. The ideas should be targeted in the direction of the problem at hand. Create a problem statement and make sure people are on task.” And I would add that to create a clear problem statement you have to know the difference between cause and effect to get to the root of the problem.

The thinking behind the book is that with fewer meetings, people have more uninterrupted blocks of time to do important work that will make a difference to the organization, causing a much bigger impact. More serious work is what propels an organization forward. For the modern meeting to work effectively, the author offers seven principles.

Seven Principles of the Modern Meeting

1. Supports a decision that has already been made
2. Moves fast and ends on schedule
3. Limits the number of attendees
4. Rejects the unprepared
5. Produces committed action plans
6. Refuses to be informational. Reading memos is mandatory
7. Works only alongside a culture of brainstorming

What the seven principles translate to, is that the decision-maker who calls the meeting has to actually make a decision before the meeting, but be ready to discuss it. If she needs input before the meeting, she calls the appropriate people and gets the information she needs. If she needs buy-in because her decision is controversial, she does that before the meeting takes place by way of one-to-one conversations. At the meeting, she is prepared for a discussion and ready to make changes if necessary, and for a final resolution.

Before the meeting she spends a considerable amount of time thinking about the agenda before creating it. And the agenda created includes what will be covered. Attendees must know before hand what is expected from them, and each meeting should conclude with committed action plans, where each attendee knows what the next steps are – what actions they need to take and when. If the agenda is well thought out, the meeting will move quickly and end on time. This will occur only if the people who really need to be there are present. And all attendees must prepare before the meeting, reading all the memos and related documents.

For those who are not prepared they are not allowed to participate, and could be asked to leave. Meetings start on time, even if all attendees are not present. The modern style of meeting forces people to take action and be accountable. People will have to find the balance between gathering information and making decisions. When people face deadlines, they make decisions faster, even the most difficult ones.

To make sure that the right people attend each meeting, each member should ask themselves four questions:

1. Will I be able to function if I read about it after it’s over?
2. If I’m given the decision we’re discussing in advance, can I give you my opinion in advance?
3. Will I add value without participating?
4. Am I attending symbolically, or as a way to demonstrate my power?

I really appreciated Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli, and I recommend it because if more people practiced the modern way of meetings, it would revolutionize the way we approach our work and more would get done in less time.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Flinch by Julien Smith, Wisdom of Life: Hannah Arendt, Philosopher, Writer and Refugee from Adolph Hitler, and Director, intercultures, Stefan Meister.

Adventures in Learning

The Invisible Mentor blog is an educational one, so with that in mind, I’m inviting my readers on an adventure in learning, which is taking place all of 2012. You do not have to read 200 books – I read a lot for my consulting business – but I would like you to read one book a week, so at the end of 2012, you would have read 52 books. It’s a couple of weeks into the new year, so you have to play a little bit of catch-up.

Adventures in Learning: Books to Read in 2012 

Booked for Mentoring

The Flinch is a great book for mentoring because it teaches us to step outside our comfort zone, and it assures us that we are not our mistakes. Because we have failed before, doesn’t mean we will not succeed. Failure is feedback, inventor Thomas Edison said, “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

Booked for Mentoring: Review of The Flinch by Julien Smith 

Wisdom of Life Profile

A political theorist, Hannah Arendt’s most important and influential work was The Origins of Totalitarianism. In this seminal work, the first of its kind, Arendt emphasized the parallels between Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. In 1975, Arendt became the first woman, and the first U.S. citizen, to be awarded Denmark’s Sonning Prizefor contributions to European civilization.

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Wisdom of Life: Hannah Arendt, Philosopher, Writer and Refugee from Adolph Hitler 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Stefan Meister, Director, intercultures. One of the biggest messages that Meister gave us is to always remain curious, open, excited, authentic and modest. Here are Part One and Part Two of Stefan Meister’s interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• Wisdom of Life: Hannah Arendt, Philosopher, Writer and Refugee from Adolph Hitler (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Stefan Meister, Director, intercultures, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Stefan Meister, Director, intercultures (theinvisiblementor.com)

The Flinch is a great book for mentoring because it teaches us to step outside our comfort zone, and it assures us that we are not our mistakes. Because we have failed before, doesn’t mean we will not succeed. Failure is feedback, inventor Thomas Edison said, “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

The Flinch by Julien Smith is one of the books in Seth Godin’s Domino Project, and is distributed for free to spread the message. I read it on my computer (I have the Kindle apps) and it takes under an hour to read. Smith includes homework assignments for the reader to do.

According to Smith, “This is a book about being a champion, and what it takes to get there. It’s about decisions, and how to know when you’re making the right ones. It’s about you: the current, present you; the potential, future you; and the one, single difference between them. It’s about an instinct – the flinch – and why mastering it is vital.”

The content of the book isn’t new, but it is presented in a different way, and it is easy to consume. This shouldn’t prevent you from reading The Flinch, because we often have to hear a message about nine times before it sticks. As I was reading the book, I was reminded of Martin Luther King’s quote, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase,” and Susan Jeffers’ awesome book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

There are many times in our life, when we flinch, and do not do the things that we know will make a major difference for us, and to make ourselves feel better, we work hard at justifying our actions, yet we wonder why we never have major breakthroughs in life. The Flinch is not about feeling no fear, it is about having the courage to move forward despite the fear. We avoid the perceived pain and flinch, instead of dealing with it.

I have heard that 92 percent of the times, what we worry about never occurs, yet we waste time worrying and not take action because of what we think may happen. But the funny thing is that most of the time what we worry about never occurs, and if it does, it seldom is as bad as we imagined. The author encourages us to take back our life, to take control and stop flinching.

If we stop flinching and just do the work, our future self will thank us. When you see children playing in a park, they are fearless, and when they fall down, they get up, dust themselves off and continue like nothing happened. The Flinch is about going back to that time, when we brushed ourselves off when we got knocked down. The formula for success in life is really about trial and error, experimenting until we find what works, and it helps us to understand the environment that we exist in.

In The Flinch, Julien Smith says, “…The lessons you learn best are the ones you get burned by. Without the scar, there is no evidence or strong memory…Firsthand knowledge, however, is visceral, painful, and necessary. It uses the conscious and the unconscious to process the lesson, and it uses all your senses. You fall down, your whole motor system is involved…”

A research report by The William Glasser Institute about how we learn backs up what Smith says, we learn:

• 10 percent of what we Read
• 20 percent of what we Hear
• 30 percent of what we See
• 50 percent of what we See and Hear
• 70 percent of what we Discuss with Others
• 80 percent of what we Experience Personally
• 95 percent of what we Teach to Others

 If you experience something, you are 80 percent likely to learn from it. Nothing beats trying and testing your limits besides teaching what your learned from the experience to another person. You constantly have to test yourself to see how far you can go.

Smith recommends that you do the opposite of your habits to build your tolerance to the flinch, and the power it holds over you. In a Seinfeld episode, George Louis Costanza discovered that when he did the opposite of what he usually did, he had great success. We are socialized to respond a certain way, which is seldom the way to blaze a new trail.

The Flinch by Julien Smith is a great reminder of how important it is to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zone. And the best part is he demonstrates how to do so in the book. Give The Flinch a read, all it will cost is an hour of your time. Even though the content isn’t new, we need a reminder. Download The Flinch today.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Early History of the Airplane by Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, Wisdom of Life Profile: Ayn Rand, Philosopher, Author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, and Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau, Jeanne-Marie Robillard.

Adventures in Learning

An assortment of blog posts with information to help you in a variety of ways.

Adventures in Learning: Learning Tools and Resources to Help You Succeed in Today’s Fast-Paced World 

Booked for Mentoring

The Early History of the Airplane by Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright is a great book for mentoring because it teaches us to question everything, and not accept things as fact.

Booked for Mentoring: The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Before the Russian Revolution, Rand and her family traveled across Europe – Austria Switzerland, England. She was a voracious reader, taught herself to read at age six, and was influenced by The Mysterious Valleyby French writer Maurice Champagne, and the writings of Victor Hugo and Walter Scott.

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Wisdom of Life: Ayn Rand, Philosopher, Author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured senior account executive for National Speakers Bureau, Jeanne-Marie Robillard. After her first year at university, while Robillard was working at a summer job, she attended a party and saw Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau standing by himself. She approached him and introduced herself. Read the interview to find out what happened. Here are Part One and Part Two of Jeanne-Marie Robillard’s interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright is a great book for mentoring because it teaches us to question everything, and not accept things as fact.

“Late in the autumn of 1878 our father came into the house late one evening with some object partly concealed in his hands, and before we could see what it was, he tossed it into the air. Instead of falling to the floor, as we expected, it flew across the room, till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor.”

The toy the Wright Brothers were referring to was a helicopter!

Orville and Wilbur Wright are qualified to write about The Early History of the Airplane because they are credited with inventing it. For many years, they dabbled in aviation. However, they became serious after the death of the King of Glider, Otto Lilienthal in 1896. To study the subject of flying, Orville and Wilbur Wright studied the work of others:

• Octave Chanute’s Progress in Flying Machines
• Samuel Pierpont Langley’s Experiments in Aerodynamics
• Aeronautical Annuals of 1905, 1906, and 1907
• Several pamphlets published by the Smithsonian Institution – especially articles by Otto Lilienthal and extracts from Louis Pierre Mouillard’s Empire of the Air.

After reading what was written, the Wright Brothers understood the problems with flying, and decided to follow the path of soaring flight, which Lilienthal, Mouillard, and Chanute followed, instead of power flight, which Professor Langley and Sir Hiram Maxim followed. The Wright Brothers first designed their machine to be flown as a kite, with a man on board. After relentless testing, they were ready to build a power-flyer.

After using information from the work of others in their experimentation in flight, the Wright Brothers had to acknowledge that a lot of the information was incorrect. They were discouraged, but didn’t give up, and instead decided to rely on their own experimentations. They couldn’t distinguish between what was true and what was false. However, they agreed that the two years were not wasted because now they had a thorough knowledge of the subject of aviation.

As the Wright Brothers take you along their journey to inventing the airplane, you get to see that it was not an easy path. There were many setbacks along the way, but they kept at it. The brothers were one of a few folks who were contracted by the US Government to build a flyer capable of carrying two men and sufficient fuel supplies for a flight of 125 miles, with a speed of 40 miles an hour, and the only contractors to deliver a working product.

What makes The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright such a great book, and one that is an excellent mentor, is not so much what is in the book. The content is important, but the book teaches the reader how to think, how to solve a problem, and the process to manage a project from start to finish. In life, we will never have all the information we need to make a decision, solve a problem, or move ahead, however, we have to step up and make intelligent assumptions based on what we already know. Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright were very good at that.

The Wright Brothers documented the actions they took while building the flyer, so they were always able to go back and review their work. They were open to suggestions, and would question things. Building an aircraft was important to them, even if it meant that they had to build parts themselves. In life, we have many different skills and experiences, and at some point our lives come together. The Wright Brothers depended on reading books or other information to understand the field of aviation, but their background in building bicycles, was helpful to them when building the aircraft.

Pearls of Wisdom from the Wright Brothers

• Study and build on the work of others.
• Do not be afraid to try something different.
• Never give up, and do not listen to naysayers. After initial spectacular failures, the public believed that flight was beyond man.
• View failure as lessons learned.
• Break down large projects into manageable stages and test each stage to ensure that it works. The Wright Brothers first designed their machine to be flown as a kite, with a man on board. Then later they added the engine.
• The road to success is paved with many failures.
• Learn by experimentation.

I recommend that you read The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright, but when you are reading the book, focus more on the process, than on the content, and you will get far more from the book. You can download a copy of The Early History of the Airplane by Orville and Wilbur Wright from Gutenberg.org.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.