Meetings and hyper-connected audiences

A modern problem in meetings is lack of attention among attendees due to blackberries and portable computers (attendees checking email, the internet, and who-know-what-else!).


Much of this is due to bad meeting culture (i.e. meetings are too long, have too many people, should not be happening, or are poorly run). But if the meeting is important and the attendee list is correct, then full attention is needed.


I know of several ways to deal with this:


1) At Microsoft, I have heard there is a culture to sit-at-the-table if you're paying attention and sit-back-from-the-table if you are handling other urgent matters through email.


2) Some meeting managers can simply say "I'd like your full attention. If you want to use the internet to find out more about some of these topics great. But I ask that you to use it only for that purpose." (Some cultures would set up some kind of bounty - free drink if you catch someone on off-strategy.)


3) I have collected phones from participants and handed them to an assistant to check. The message is "I would like your full attention on this important topic. If you get an urgent call, my assistant will answer for you and pull you out of the meeting."

A culture of few, short meetings is the best of all solutions.

4 Attributes of Successful Leaders

I attended an interesting talk last night by Egon Zehnder executive Claudio Fernandez Araoz, author of "Great People Decisions." He suggests there are 4 attributes of a successful leader:

1) Genetics - health and IQ, to name but a few
2) Place/Era - if you are in China, things are good right now (if in sub-prime mortgage industry, not so much)
3) Career Choice - the quality of the companies that you keep
4) Ability to hire good people

His talk make good points that companies spend lots of time on certain activities (e.g. accounting, budgetting) but not nearly enough on the process of hiring people.

Work is important to life

Work offers people 3 important things: 1) a way to structure your time; 2) a sense of community; and 3) a sense of shared purpose.

Author John Trauch says that you need to recreate these conditions in retirement (also when between jobs, it would seem).

Another author, Alan Bernstein, says that even after a honeymoon period of travel/golf/etc, you need to take steps to build purpose into your life. Activity ideas from a 3rd author, Tamara Erickson, include philanthropy, volunteer work, going back to school, changing your career, teaching, or starting a business.

--- From New York Times "Career Couch"

We aren't built to be happy

Jonathan Clements, who writes a column for the Wall Street Journal, says "rather, we are built to survive and reproduce. We wouldn't be here today if our ancestors didn't struggle mightily to protect and feed their families. The promise of happiness, meanwhile, is just a trick to jolly us along."

A Harvard professor offers further advice. Author of "Stumbling on Happiness," he says:

Suppose you think you will be happier if you move to a small rural town,
adopt a child, or quit your job and become a high school math teacher.

Don't rely on the opinions of people who live in small towns, have adopted
kids or become teachers. Instead, spend some time observing these folks --
and see whether they're happy.

Gossip is a message to leaders

Gossip has a negative connotation, but it could also be called "strategic information sharing", says Michael Morris, professor at Columbia Business School.

"Gossips fills an information void, and it can be considered a warning to management to do a better job of communicating to employees", Says Mitch Kusy, professor at Antioch University.

Gossip is a natural part of human evolutions, says David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University. "Human beings are voracious consumers of information...That's why we call gossip 'juicy.' It's like tasty food and we hunger for it. And because humans are cooperative animals, when I get a piece of information you need, I just have to give it to you"

- from Career Couch, Eileen Zimmerman, New York Times

-

Women are more honest leaders?

I was intrigued by this recent passage :

An MIT economist, Esther Duflo, looked at India, which has
required female leaders in one-third of village councils since the mid-1990's.
Professor Duflo and her colleagues found that by objective standards, the women
ran the villages better than men. For example, women constructed and maintained
wells better, and took fewer bribes.

- 2/10/08 article in the New York Times by Nicholas D. Kristoff

Stop unwanted communications

One big time-killer is unwanted communications, such as phone calls, mail, and email. A good overview is "Top 10 Opt-Outs" posted on a web site called:

http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/

Two other websites that I have found to be effective:

Direct Marketing Association (DMA) website: http://www.dmachoice.com/

And my wife's favorite site to stop unwanted physical mail (and plant trees!): http://www.greendimes.com/