Blog

8 Ground Rules for Great Meetings

We first saw these meeting ground rules in the conference rooms of a Japanese car company. And they have served us well ever since. Next time you chair a meeting share and enforce them and let us know if they help.

1. Start and Finish on Time…

What the F?

Have you ever given a talk and wondered if your audience are really paying attention?

Here’s an exercise that will put them to the test.
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To Fire or not to Fire – 5 considerations to ease the decision

Jim Collins in ‘Good to Great’ talks about getting the right people on the bus, in the right seats and getting the wrong people off the bus. Whilst recruitment and talent management is energising for most managers, firing team members is really tough. Consequently many leaders procrastinate and therefore lead underperforming teams.

If you’re wrestling with whether or not to retain an underperforming member of staff here are 5 questions to ask yourself:
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Breaking Bread – our newest team building programme

For thousands of years, the head of the table has broken bread to signal the commencement of a meal. Celebration, or feasting, is an important practice for high performing teams. Our latest activity explores the similarities between building teams and making bread.

With the popularity of TV shows like ‘The Great British Bake Off’, alongside concerns over additives in commercial loaves, the art of baking bread is back in vogue. The smell of freshly baked bread is captivating and many say the process of kneading therapeutic. Making bread is a simple process but one that requires patience and control.
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Team building from everyday objects

When Lego meets Art (or team building) it delivers more than you’d expect.

Lego fiend Nathan Sawaya has recreated and exhibited his Lego versions of great works of art around the world; but not always to critical acclaim.

Is it art? Or the result of well funded self-publicity?
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Only Good Behaviour Can Beat Cyber-crime

80% of aircraft accidents are due to human error and cyber security breaches are no different, human behaviour is leaving the doors wide open on our information.

Ask a criminal to identify targets in a crowded street and they’ll select the weak, confused and vulnerable passers-by. Cyber criminals are the same. Consequently your organisations security isn’t just reliant upon the latest firewalls. It depends more on the proper behaviour of your people. Those employees using weak passwords, being careless with their devices and assuming they are not a target are effectively giving hackers the keys to your organisation.
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Overcoming the Networking Nightmare

Your boss passes you an invitation to an industry event and suggests you go along as it could be a good networking opportunity.

Andy Bound’s Networking Made Easy in 4 minutes!

But the idea of entering a room of strangers conjures up one or more of the following fears:

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Fresh Tracks’ 2014 in Pictures

We ran a lot of memorable events last year, with great feedback. Look and see if you made our highlights of 2014:

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3 Office Resolutions

As personal New Year Resolutions fade here are three revolutionary ideas to improve life in the office:

Most of us make personal New Year Resolutions, so why not try thinking of some for the workplace too?

1. Less meetings, better conversations
Ban formal meetings on Mondays and Fridays, instead encourage lunches and informal chats over coffee at either end of the week. …

4 Reasons Most Meetings Fail

Ever been to a meeting and not really known what it has achieved – or have you ever been to a meeting to talk about going to another meeting? These incidents are common and so what is it that makes a meeting a ‘fail’?

Grumbling about meetings for the sake of meetings is something of an art-form in business. Meetings are necessary though. As any manager will know – without a meeting all hell can break loose with miscommunications, undefined goals and missed deadlines. So why is it that so many meetings are seen as a complete waste of time by those who begrudgingly attend them?

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