My good friend and colleague Donna McGeorge has just published a new book that I can’t wait to share with you. It is called The 25 Minute Meeting and shows you how to double the impact of your meetings in half the time. If you’ve have been following my recent blogs, especially since I released Smart Teams, you will know that this is right up my alley!
The basic premise of Donna’s book is that many workplace meetings are scheduled for one hour or more, which is too long in most cases, and in fact, can be counter-productive. Taking her inspiration from the Francesco Cirillo’s book, The Pomodoro Technique, which promotes short bursts of work for 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break, Donna suggests that you can get more done in a focused 25 minute meeting, than you could in an unfocused hour. Who would have thought?!
What I really like about this book is that it doesn’t just focus on how to make your meetings shorter, but also how to create more impact with the time that is used. Meetings are such a luxurious way of spending group time, and it is critical that they have a purpose and achieve outcomes that are worthy of the collective time invested. Donna unveils a three-step process to achieve this:
- Set up
- Show up
- Step up
I love practical books that deliver an end to end strategic solution if you read it cover to cover, or lots of tactical strategies that you can implement that day if you just dip in and out. The 25 Minute Meeting works on both levels and is so aligned to both the Smart Work and Smart Teams approach to productivity.
Do yourself a favour and order a copy for each of your team members today.