Read This Before Our Next Meeting [Kindle Edition]

I got this as a free download but it now seems somewhat expensive for what is a pretty short book.

It is quite well written and there are useful suggestions. However there is quite a lot of fluff in it especially at the start. Too many words rambling on about how terrible meeting are rather than offering practical suggestions.

Later on it does offer real suggestions and instructions and they are useful.
However a lot of this information is not original and is well known.
The Q& A session at the book was very useful though.

For a free download this would be highly rated but as they are charging for it I wouldn't really recommend this at all.

There's some great ideas in this book, mostly focused around either replacing meetings with one on one discussions, or on shortening the length of meetings that do need to happen, to improve the decision making process in organisations. The ideas themselves are really useful, and will definitely contribute to you having better meetings, and fewer of them.

However, I found very little in the book on how to implement that change, outside of "Just do it and tell people you're doing it", something that most people simply aren't able to do - they're not the people organising these wasteful meetings, and are not in a position to simply refuse to turn up. It would be a much improved book if it advised on how to get other people to follow the rules when you're not in a position to dictate to them.

The book is worth a read, and it's definitely worth absorbing the ideas behind the book, but you may well struggle to turn them into practical actions.

How many meetings do you have at work where you leave thinking `what a complete waste of time and effort'?

If the answer is `a lot' or `most of them' then you really must read Al Pittampalli's excellent new book `Read This Before Our Next Meeting`.

The latest title from The Domino Project, Al's book highlights all that is wrong with the `traditional meeting' and suggests a better, more productive way to do business through the `Modern Meeting`.

Describing Microsoft Office email Appointments as `weapons of mass interruption', Al hits the nail on the head when he says that it's far too easy for people to call team meetings with little care or thought for the impact they might have on the recipients that have to sit through 'another bad meeting'.

Furthermore, he points out how meetings have become stalling tactics and havens for complacency and collective indecision in too many organisations around the world. Too many meetings with too many people (or the wrong ones) leads to inaction, compromise and mediocrity. `Less talk, more action' should be the new mantra.

Some of the key themes and ideas I took from the book which I will be trying to implement in future include;

- Thinking really, really carefully before calling a meeting and who you should invite. (Sounds obvious but is a very important point to make).
- Taking your time to circulate reading materials before the meeting and INSISTING that all attendees read them beforehand. If they turn up for the meeting without reading, then you are perfectly within your rights to ask them to leave. Time is precious and you certainly don't have time to go through the background info at the beginning. These types of `informaional meetings' are a big waste of your and everyone else's time.
- Simply turning up for a meeting isn't enough. All attendees should be expected to `turn up' in mind and spirit and contribute something to the meeting. Make it clear that they must add some value to proceedings (asking questions, sharing insight, offering to take on task) otherwise they aren't welcome or necessary and won't be invited to future meetings.
- Make sure that all meetings have a clear purpose, clear objective(s) and end on time. Put a big visual countdown timer on display so people know that you mean business.
- Ensure that someone makes good and proper notes from the meeting which are circulated soon after with clear action points for all attendees. I would actually suggest that if it's important, the person calling the meeting should also take their own notes and follow things up personally. Ideally, all attendees should be making their own notes too and taking responsibility for actions in the actual meeting (far too many do neither and then can't remember what was agreed to).

Like all Domino Project titles, this highly useful book is deliberately fast-paced and designed to be read in around 1hr (I read mine via Kindle App on my Windows Phone on the bus journey home from work).

So, if you're sick of feeling like your time is being wasted by pointless meetings or are simply looking for ways to improve your professional capacity and productivity at work, then I highly recommend you grab hold of a copy. Even better if you can share it with your colleagues too so they can understand where you are coming from.

Perhaps you could even hold a `Modern Meeting' to discuss how to roll them out across the organisation?