The Cure for Bad Meetings: Pay Attention and Contribute!

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If you find meetings boring and feel that most are a waste of time, there is a simple remedy entirely within your control that solves that problem quite constructively:

Banish boredom by paying attention and participating!!!

One of my partners recently had this reinforced when reading an article by Greg Rathjen, published online by market research publisher Quirks. Mr. Rathjen used just a few anecdotes from his personal experiences while presenting research results to capture the destructive impact smartphones and tablet computers have had on workplace meetings. Of course, these devices are just the latest enablers of poor meeting behavior, which has been going on as long as humans have run meetings. He then asked three frustrating questions to which all of us can relate:

What is it that cannot wait the hour or so the presentation will take?Are the distracted not aware of the unintended consequences that come from focusing on the smartphone and not the meeting?How do they miss that there is more to being a meeting participant than waiting for the presenter to finish?

These experiences are way too common in business today, and must be eradicated if we are to maintain productivity. But, within Mr. Rathjen's last desperate query above lies the solution!

Your mission: Actively participate in every meeting.

It is easier than you think to banish boredom all by yourself. Simply make up your mind to always engage fully in the content being presented. Don't distract yourself with e-mail management or other off-task activities. Choose to pay close attention, and actively participate in discussions. Here is the mindset I try to instill in clients:

Assume you will hear something new and useful every time, even if you have heard the presentation before. Volunteer to take notes, if that keeps you fully engaged.Turn off your electronic equipment every time. If you are "on deadline" or "on call," don't come to the meeting. Being physically present is useless without being mentally present. It is OK to ask beforehand if you really need to be there.Challenge yourself to keep an open mind, and "check your assumptions and preconceived notions at the door."Make constructive comments. Never snipe, or use the poor presenter to score points in front of your boss.Challenge assumptions in a substantial way. Never disparage any well-meant contributions to the conversation.Never hijack a meeting from the presenter. Let that person retain control, while still actively offering your input.Give ground when reasonable arguments are presented in opposition to your view. This is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of character and an ability to adapt and grow.

I would strongly disagree with Mr. Rathjen when he says "fake it." That isn't constructive. Always present and pursue the truth, and take a real, keen interest in the proceedings.

Any meeting can be turned into a useful event if a constructive conversation breaks out that is forward-thinking (what should we do from here?) and action-oriented (how best to do those things?). You can instigate these constructive conversations!

Solve your boredom by engaging fully in the content. Be the person on your team that magically turns meetings from dead zones to constructive events! Our twenty-five years of experience tells us that if you take this "high road" approach others will see the results and start to adopt your behavior.

You can find Greg Rathjen's article here.

David Tighe has been working with his clients to create fully engaged employee teams and embed more effective leadership skills among executives and middle managers since 1987. He authored Bovo-Tighe's highly effective Foundation of Excellence approach to employee development. This philosophy generates measurable ROI for clients by focusing relentlessly on upfront problem diagnosis of productivity bottlenecks and long-term sustainability of results with every client engagement. Bovo-Tighe also offers a performance guarantee to back up their performance claims, a rarity in the employee development industry.

Find out more about Bovo-Tighe, its Foundation of Excellence approach and its performance guarantee at http://www.bovo-tighe.com/.

Prevent Company Vehicle Abuse With GPS Tracking

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.5 million Americans hold multiple jobs. Theoretically, there's nothing wrong with employees earning extra money on the side, as long as there is no conflict of interest with their primary employer. Realistically, however, many workers are moonlighting without their employer's knowledge, putting their revenue and reputation at risk when performing unauthorized jobs on the side. It's this unreported, unauthorized moonlighting that can be the most financially damaging to a company.

Employers have to be cautious when dealing with the issue of side jobs. Prohibiting it outright can lead to issues of privacy, but the employer needs to protect their assets as well.

Consider Dan, an HVAC repair company employee who is dispatched to fix a customer's air conditioning unit. After diagnosing the problem, Dan presents the customer with the estimate for the repair, which the customer thinks is too high. Dan tells the customer that he can return after he gets off work and perform the repair for a significantly lower price. Dan completes his other scheduled stops and leaves work in the company vehicle as he normally does. Instead of going home, however, Dan returns to the customer's house in the company vehicle, and uses the company's tools to perform the repair, pocketing the cash paid by the customer.

Dan used the company vehicle, fuel, tools, and any replacement parts in order to fix the customer's A/C unit, and the company received nothing in return, because they never knew the job was completed.

There are also potential hidden costs associated with jobs like this. Because Dan showed up in a company vehicle, the company's reputation is at stake, especially if he performs sub-standard work. Also, the company may still be liable for insurance claims resulting from injuries to either Dan or the customer that happened while performing the job, or as a result of the repair.

Many companies are employing GPS tracking to combat these types of occurrences. Once installed in the vehicle, the GPS unit reports back to a centralized system, usually located at the company's headquarters. There, depending on the system, dispatchers can locate their vehicles in real-time on an interactive map, or even view a history of where their vehicles have been driven over a specified period of time. Service vehicles are often one of a company's most expensive assets, and a GPS system, properly installed and administered, can make keeping track of them tremendously easier.

While knowing the locations of the company vehicles is a clear advantage, it is only one of the many cost-saving benefits enjoyed by companies using a GPS system such as those provided by GPS Fleet Solutions. For over 11 years, GPS Fleet Solutions has been a premier provider of GPS fleet tracking products and services. As a leader in the distribution of GPS tracking, telematics, and fleet management technology, their goal is to help their customers maximize their fleet's efficiency with the quickest return on investment.

For more information, visit GPS Fleet Solutions at http://www.gpsfleetsolutions.com/ or call 855-300-0526.

Parkinson's Law and the Feedback Problem

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Parkinson's law is a positive feedback problem. It follows the classical theme that occurs when a trend is started that reinforces the trend to make it larger. In the topic under discussion it is the increase in staff that makes more work for other staff and in consequence increases the need for yet more staff.

There are innumerable occasions when this applies and they seem to be increasing all the time, particularly in the European Union. The expansion of staff that increases an unnecessary work load was well documented by C Northcote Parkinson in the 1950's and his law is well and very much alive today.

The problem is typically identified in the civil service and other organisations that are not commercially orientated, although commercial firms that are weighed down with bureaucracy may also be subject to the same problem. In a wealth creating company this may not be a burden on the community, it may simply mean that less wealth is created than might be the case if the staffing were more slim.

Parkinson's law may in fact be extended since it is evident that when a new department is created then they have to find work to occupy them. When this entails creating new legislation, rather than an active work load, then the number of rules and petty regulations must increase to justify the creation of the new department. Health and safety regulation appears to satisfy this comment and its scope is increased by local departments such as town councils. They often feel obliged to protect themselves against the court proceedings that might ensue if the department's recommendations are ignored, however tenuous the link might be.

The problem of course is how to limit the expansion of such departments when feedback is such a strong factor. Topics for triggering a brain storming session can be devised to identify methods for controlling the vicious circle. A selection of the topics starts with saturation of a necessary commodity, which in this case could be supply of staff. Reducing the rate of recruitment is an obvious means of slowing down the expansion of a department, whilst cutting recruitment altogether would in the longer term mean a decline in numbers as some staff reach retirement age.

Opening the loop means preventing the trend from reinforcing the trend, perhaps by a management discipline that demands a slim workforce. The most that might be achieved could be low gain in the loop, this is perhaps a more likely scenario since the expansion of a need for staff becomes a process of negotiation with senior management. Such management can be flexible in its demands depending on circumstances, and delaying recruitment is a likely stance.

A negative feedback loop operates so as to compensate for errors in a system by subtracting the influence of a trend to keep a system on an even keel. Such an influence in the present case may be the need for profitability of the enterprise. Profits might be increased by having fewer staff, and in consequence more money may be available for salaries and dividends. Alternatively an external influence may operate by virtue of a government directive, such as is apparent in times of recession.

The remaining topic that might be appropriate is a theme change. This is only likely to be considered if the organisation takes a path that is seriously wrong and the other methods are bearing insufficient fruit. It may mean a change in the structure of the enterprise and a change in the way of working. Whatever the answer there is always scope for considering new solutions to a problem.

The author has considered how some lessons in science and engineering can be applied to problems in every day life. These have aroused so much interest that it is time to spread the ideas around a larger readership. He has prepared the Scoldent list as an aid for solutions to typical problems. Before retirement he was a Chartered Physicist and a Chartered Engineer. His book "Vicious Loops and Pendulums" is available as an ebook or as a paper-back at http://www.scoldent.co.uk/