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

Happy New Year!

So far I'm not doing that well with my goals -- I missed my 6:55 a.m. outdoor workout this morning. Considering it was -13 C, perhaps it was a good thing that I slept in. I do want to get more attuned to my body, so perhaps I'm doing that today.

I'm toying with the idea of starting a new blog:

• personal MBA Southern style
• my personal MBA southern style

I'll have to mull that one over a bit more...

Struggling

I have been struggling, as of late, to get thoroughly involved in a good novel. I should have loved, Year of the Flood, but I found it too horrific. I tried to read The Childrens Book by A.S. Byatt. Again, I should have loved it: beautiful language, the creative process, historical (Edwardian age with the Great War in development), women's rights. It's all there and I became engaged immediately, but I couldn't sustain it and returned it unfinished.

Similarly, I was very excited to get Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. I typically enjoy Booker winners and this one grabbed my attention from the first page. I have read numerous works regarding this era and this books should have engrossed me. Again, I just couldn't make the time to read and again, it was returned unfinished.

After a week of vacation, I think I have identified the problem: I've been too exhausted to be engaged. I've also been too busy with my mind focused on other issues including the hosting of Christmas this year.

This cannot continue.

I love reading and enjoy a good book so I'm going to make some changes in my life.

Step one: I've noted all the things have have to been done daily, weekly, monthly and I will post them in the new year. The goal is to create some ebb and flow so that if we're really busy, some things will have to go to the way side in order to give M & M some opportunities to relax and rejuvenate. It will help us prioritize.

Step two: schedule date nights and planned family activities.

Step three: schedule some alone time. M gave me a membership to the AGO. It's perfect since I love art, and I need to set aside time to think and rejuvenate.

Goal setting: Also, I'm getting a little bored with this blog, so instead of limiting my comments to books, I'm going to focus my efforts in creating my own personal MBA -- something I've been doing for years. I'm going to discuss 12 issues in 2010. I've accumulated a number of good books, but I haven't made notes about them and different issues. I'm going to set up a program for myself. If I read a good fiction book in the meantime, then such entries will be an added bonus.

So here is to goal setting and making a plan.

Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

Talk about reading the polar opposite of "Year of the Flood." What can I say, the flu season was getting the best of me. Dan Brown's latest work was entertaining, but I kept having the nagging feeling that the publisher told Brown to stop referring to elements in Europe and appeal to his core audience -- Americans. He did that in spades. I wonder if tourism to Washington D.C. will increase as a result?

In short, entertaining but forgettable.

Here is the publisher's blurb:
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object -artfully encoded with five symbols - is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long - lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon - a prominent Mason and philanthropist - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations-all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.

Year of the flood.

Nope, I couldn't do it. I gave up on Atwood's latest. I even read the last chapter before putting it on the shelf because the reviews said it is hopeful in the end. Again, the brutality depicted is just too much for me. Maybe at a different time or stage in my life, but I just don't need to have horrific images floating around in my mind right now.

What's next? I'm not sure... I'm sure something will grab my attention. Something a lot lighter.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I just started this work and was horrified to discover that the pigs from Oryx and Crake are back. Those swine give me nightmares! Thankfully, a hold came in from the Library so I switched to Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I only have two weeks to read it. What a change! I went from "literature" to pure entertaining bubble gum. We all need that now and then... I will return to Ren and Toby, though. I liked their characters immediately. If I were a more patient person, I would re-read Oryx and Crake before returning to Year of the Flood, but I doubt that will happen.

The Year of the Flood -- From the Publisher
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood is a brilliant visionary imagining of the future that calls to mind her classic novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Adam One, the kindly leader of God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion - has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have been spared: Ren, a young trapeze-dancer, locked inside a high-end sex club; and one of God's Gardeners, Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Have others survived?

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and witty, The Year of the Flood unfolds Toby's and Ren's stories during the years prior to their meeting again. The novel not only brilliantly reflects to us a world we recognize but poignantly reminds us of our enduring humanity.

Mama makes up her mind by Baily White

I have no idea how this book came my way... It must have been recommended to me, and for some reason I read it. I read it all. It was mediocre and still I finished it. I blame it on the summer time. How did it reach the best sellers' list? It was obviously not the Globe and Mail's best sellers' list. I'm sure people from the south love its down home, folksy charm just as Canadian's love the Vinyl Cafe, but give me Stuart McLean any day... I'm aching for a good book.

From Publishers Weekly
White is known to fans of National Public Radio's All Things Considered for her endearing true stories about rural South Georgia where she lives and teaches the first grade. Her first book, which brings together some 50 of these short pieces, rich in humor and folksy charm, should delight her listeners, as well as readers new to her storytelling. Many of the selections deal with White's mother, who has never seen a movie as good as Midnight Cowboy, and other relatives and friends with similar eccentric wrinkles in their personalities. Other pieces are culled from the events of White's everyday life--gardening, her school's annual Christmas Party.