We'Ve Got to Start Meeting Like This: A Guide to Successful Meeting Management

Rating:
Summary: Too Cerebral, Too Procedural, Too Digital
Review: Book Review. Jack D. Cook, Training Consultant, Middle East

Have to disagree 180 degrees with Ken Blanchard on his summation of We've Got to Start meeting Like This! as "the best book on meetings on the market today." I am qualified to disagree with Mr. Blanchard because I taught his book Situational Leadership for 5 years on a U.S. Military base before coming to the Middle East.

I have just reviewed We've Got to Start meeting Like This! And from an international perspective, the book is too cerebral, too procedural, too clinical, and too digital. Devoid of the "messy stuff" of groups communicating that often characterizes even the best of well-run business meetings.

In fact, the Index does not even list emotions, empathy, group maintenance skills, and any other "touch-feely" term or phrase that authors seem to have strong aversion for. While the emphasis is "all about data" and MIS and DSS computer-aided decision support systems, the authors do allude to Carl Rogers, cited in a box on page 183, in a response to a "fan" of One Minute Manager who is desperate for some way to manage conflict. But more space (about 3 pages) is given to a "cute" profile of "The Meeting Saboteur." Seems that the contradictions run everywhere, like a cheap pair of pantyhose.

Typographically and stylistically speaking, the paragraphs are long, academic, self-congratulatory, and evince almost a total absence of "good white space" and effective use of lists and bulleting. "Words, words, words," as Hamlet said. And it appears the authors were writing to one another, certainly not to an urbane, multicultural, international audience. Verbiage! Verbiage! Verbiage! Almost rimes with garbage, garbage, garbage. Seriously, the authors could reduce the word count by 50% and the fog index would drop by a thousand.

My summation is that this book is one of the worst books on running effective meetings I have ever read.

Jack D. Cook
Saudi Arabia

Rating:
Summary: Too Cerebral, Too Procedural, Too Digital
Review: Book Review. Jack D. Cook, Training Consultant, Middle East

Have to disagree 180 degrees with Ken Blanchard on his summation of We've Got to Start meeting Like This! as "the best book on meetings on the market today." I am qualified to disagree with Mr. Blanchard because I taught his book Situational Leadership for 5 years on a U.S. Military base before coming to the Middle East.

I have just reviewed We've Got to Start meeting Like This! And from an international perspective, the book is too cerebral, too procedural, too clinical, and too digital. Devoid of the "messy stuff" of groups communicating that often characterizes even the best of well-run business meetings.

In fact, the Index does not even list emotions, empathy, group maintenance skills, and any other "touch-feely" term or phrase that authors seem to have strong aversion for. While the emphasis is "all about data" and MIS and DSS computer-aided decision support systems, the authors do allude to Carl Rogers, cited in a box on page 183, in a response to a "fan" of One Minute Manager who is desperate for some way to manage conflict. But more space (about 3 pages) is given to a "cute" profile of "The Meeting Saboteur." Seems that the contradictions run everywhere, like a cheap pair of pantyhose.

Typographically and stylistically speaking, the paragraphs are long, academic, self-congratulatory, and evince almost a total absence of "good white space" and effective use of lists and bulleting. "Words, words, words," as Hamlet said. And it appears the authors were writing to one another, certainly not to an urbane, multicultural, international audience. Verbiage! Verbiage! Verbiage! Almost rimes with garbage, garbage, garbage. Seriously, the authors could reduce the word count by 50% and the fog index would drop by a thousand.

My summation is that this book is one of the worst books on running effective meetings I have ever read.

Jack D. Cook
Saudi Arabia

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good meeting book
Review: I bought this book for work, and it's pretty thorough. It addresses common meeting problems, suggests causes, and then offers solutions. I found the surveys in the appendix particularly useful. Two of the forms are going to be implemented at my company: the one on facilitation form / agenda preparation and the one on meeting evaluation. The book gave tons of ideas on how to make meetings better.

Rating:
Summary: Don't like simplistic "how to run a meeting" books?
Review: Then this is the book for you. This is by far the most thorough and the most detailed book not only on meetings but one of the best books on inter-personal relationships at work. Based on empirical research, this book is not your garden variety (We think that 3 main ways you can save time are ...) but a serious and methodologically sound work. I run various management seminars in Australia and world-wide, among them "Time Management @ WORK", where a whole section is devoted to time wastage at meetings, and I have read almost every conceivable book on time management (many of them being an utter waste of time and money). The small price of this gem will be one of the best investments you and your organisation will make in a long time.

A warning: if you expect quick and easy answers and "5 fast ways to improve your meetings" you may be dissapointed, since that simplistic attitude may be your organisation's problem in the first place!