Death by Meeting, by Patrick Lencioni

I'm planning my first staff meeting for the year, and I want to ensure that it is effective. I've sat through a number of staff meetings in my day. Typically, individuals drone on about a variety of topics, but as discussed in the book, Death by Meeting, there is no drama, and little to no engagement. The chair's main goal is to get through a huge number of agenda items with as little conflict as possible.

I don't want to run my meetings like this. According to this book, the key to starting off a good meeting is to start with a bit of drama -- a hook -- within the first 10 minutes of the meeting, so that staff become engaged. In other words, give people a reason to care.

I already know that I want to review key issues coming up for the department and make sure people are well informed. I plan to issue the month end report the week before the meeting and ask staff if they would any clarification on the different topics.

I want to make sure we discuss effective Reader's Advisory tactics and ensure people know their expectations at the information desk. I need to challenge the group -- they're intelligent and opinionated, so I need to channel this.

Thirdly, we need to discuss 2010 goals and set the stage so that people know they will get setting personal goals for the department this year.

So, I need to give more thought to the structure of the meeting, and how I want to approach the RA portion of the meeting and how to set the stage for one-on-on goal setting for individuals.

Here is a link to an executive summary of this book by Lencioni: http://www.cmibusinessplanning.com/Death%20By%20Meeting%20Summary.pdf

Topics to date:

• Clarify and expand upon upcoming issues e.g. projects in the works, and how it will affect them


• Reinforce our mission and customer service


• provide reader's advisory coaching and provide break-out sessions for staff


• Set expectations by reviewing 2010 goals