I'm actually reading a book!

Do you seem to dread any of your weekly meetings? Or, maybe you just think they could be better than they are? If so, this book is for you. (And, don't worry, my boss asked me to read this!)

The first part of this book is a leadership fable, as the cover states. I heard from a couple people that they normally skip those types of sections and just cut straight to the rest. But, since the majority of the book is the fable, I decided to read it. Plus, I am not really a skip-to-the-end kind of person. Anyway, I am totally into it! I can't wait to find out what happens!

Here are a couple things I've already learned about leading productive meetings:

• -The most important part of the meeting is the first 10 minutes...kind of like the beginning of your favorite movie. You need to "hook" your team and give them a reason to care about the rest of it before they check out.
  
  -All good meetings must involve conflict.
  
  -Everyone, but especially the leader of the group, needs to be looking for places where people have different opinions but aren't necessarily putting them out there. And when you see that, you need to force them to communicate what they're thinking until they've said all there is to be said. You need to constantly be mining for buried conflict (regardless of what the clock says).
  
  -The alternative is that it will be left unresolved and people will come back later and say they never agreed with the decision.
  
  -Consensus should not be the goal - NOT achievable, the likelihood is very low.
  
  -A great discussion ends when the leader of the team decides all the info has been aired. If no one has made a compelling enough argument for making a decision, the leader breaks the tie.
  
  -Once the decision is made, everyone supports it. That why it is critical that no one holds anything back during the discussion.
  
  Stay tuned for more!