In our knowledge economy, employees can expect to spend
approximately a quarter of their time at work in meetings. Middle
managers can spend at least 2 days per week in meetings and executives can be in meetings up to a staggering four days a week!
So..............giving a little thought to making that time more productive could give big results. In this article called 'How Does Your Organisation think?' Phil suggests you POP your meetings!
Its an amazingly simple way of making sure that meetings give you the results you want. It doesn't need new skills or training and you can start using it straight away. Read the full article
Dear Colleague
Welcome to our second newsletter and a simplified format. We will now be
sending more regular newsletters with articles and resources such as those above that can help improve your personal and organisational dialogues and therefore your effectiveness and productivity . We hope you like them and please do give us your feedback here.
Our FREE Dialogue Health Check is proving very popular with our clients. It is based on questions devised by Edgar Schein. Schein was the author who first coined the term - Process Consultancy that distinguishes our type of work from the more familiar 'provision of expertise' or 'diagnose and prescribe' models. Access the open version here Dialogue Health Check or e mail us.
for a free service where we provide you with a tailored version and a full report
Bare Knuckles; Bare Poles and Polls!
We reflect on the recent British elections and the aftermath through the lens of dialogue. Politics is full of debate and this year the debate became a public spectacle - but did we really learn much about the parties and their policies or was it just entertainment? Read the full article here
Introducing CRYPTOONS
Many of you will know that Robert Thompson has contributed to our work since we started the company in 2006. Last year he won the prestigious 15th annual Cartoon Art Trust award for best Joke Cartoon for his work in Private Eye, the Oldie, the Spectator etc. Together we have coined the name 'Cryptoon' to describe our newsletter competition. Can you guess the word that this cartoon depicts? If you think you have solved it then e mail us . The first correct answer we receive will win the featured book for this month. If you are still scratching your head, the answer will be given in our next newsletter
News & Reviews News: Phil has qualified as a full member of SFCT [Solutions Focus Consulting and Training]. This international association was established to give a coherent voice to SF practitioners working in organisational settings and to be a focal point for developments in the field. There are over 100 associate members worldwide and only 6 other Full members to date. Full members must have a piece of work rigorously assessed and peer reviewed to qualify.
Book Review: Rework: change the way you work forever - Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Jason and David run a highly successful software company called 37 signals and in this book they share some of their unconventional business strategies. We were drawn to this book because they describe their business as intentionally small - a philosophy that we at Summerhouses also follow - no large associate team or sales force - the people you deal with from the start are the people who do the work for you and who have many years of experience behind them. In the book they challenge accepted wisdom with some great phrases such as ASAP is poison; meetings are toxic and planning is guessing. Its a must read for everyone whether employed or running their own business and very thought provoking in the same way as the Ricardo Semler books are. Their message is clear: always have the imagination to challenge the accepted way of doing things and constantly seek out the new.
We have to Stop Meeting Like This!
