Side conversations ruin meetings by destroying focus and fragmenting participation.
Monsters in Meetings – How to Manage Unproductive Behavior
It happens easily. You’re conducting a meeting and suddenly a small side meeting starts. Then someone introduces an unrelated issue. Someone else ridicules the new issue. Everyone laughs, except the person who mentioned the idea. Then someone insults the person who told the joke. Two people stand up and walk out. Others complain that the meeting is a waste of time.
Monsters in Meetings – Deadlocked Discussions
You thought you had an effective meeting until one participant disagreed with everyone else. Then others took sides. Now the meeting is deadlocked. Here’s what to do.
Monsters in Meetings – Personal Attacks
Personal attacks hurt people, mar communication, and end creativity. If they become part of a meeting’s culture, they drive the participants into making safe and perhaps useless contributions.
Monsters in Meetings – Dominant Participants
While dominant participants contribute significantly to the success of a meeting, they can also overwhelm, intimidate, and exclude others. Thus, you want to control their energy without losing their support.
Monsters in Meetings – Drifting From the Topic
Although new ideas lead to creative solutions, they can be a challenge when they interrupt or distract the work on an issue.
Monsters in Meetings – Quiet Participants
There are many reasons why someone would decline to participate during a meeting. For example, the person may feel reluctant to speak out, may disagree with the approach endorsed by others in the meeting, or may just be tired.
Munchkins Want Advice from Monsters? Not!
I was sipping my morning “wake-cup” of coffee over the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle this weekend when I came across an article by staff writer John Batteiger referencing web sites useful to small business. Great, I thought, I’d love more of those valuable resources. Silly me.
The Monsters Out Of The Cage Part 2
In part one of this article we covered why electronic publishing is such a powerful breakthrough, allowing even the new online marketer to cash in.