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The Hamster Revolution for Meetings: How to Meet Less and Get More Done
Are meetings taking over your life? You’re not alone. Meet Iris, a sales director so overwhelmed by meetings that she feels like a hamster on a wheel—in fact, she’s turned into one. Just in time, she meets a coach—a leading meeting efficiency expert—with a simple system that helps her regain her sanity and humanity.
The coach’s secret is a laser-like focus on the five biggest meeting pain
1. Meeting Professionals waste twenty-four days a year in useless meetings.
2. Missing success ninety percent of all professionals attend meetings that lack a clearly stated objective and agenda.
3. Virtual-meeting Disinterested participants + endless technical glitches huge amounts of wasted time.
4. Agenda Goals are missed when meetings veer off course.
5. Action Incomplete action items result in delayed projects and missed deadlines.
The coach demonstrates that these five challenges are damaging Iris’s career and costing the world over a trillion dollars each year. He provides practical new solutions that rapidly transform Iris from victim to victor. These solutions are tailored to the technology-driven world in which Iris lives—she discovers how to use e-calendars, PDAs, and virtual meetings to make her life easier, not more complicated. She applies the solutions, gets immediate results, and reclaims her life. The Hamster Revolution for Meetings focuses on a small number of high-impact best practices that really work. Included is a landmark case study that shows how 3,000 Capital One associates reclaimed ten days per year while improving meeting effectiveness by over 35 percent.
The coach’s secret is a laser-like focus on the five biggest meeting pain
1. Meeting Professionals waste twenty-four days a year in useless meetings.
2. Missing success ninety percent of all professionals attend meetings that lack a clearly stated objective and agenda.
3. Virtual-meeting Disinterested participants + endless technical glitches huge amounts of wasted time.
4. Agenda Goals are missed when meetings veer off course.
5. Action Incomplete action items result in delayed projects and missed deadlines.
The coach demonstrates that these five challenges are damaging Iris’s career and costing the world over a trillion dollars each year. He provides practical new solutions that rapidly transform Iris from victim to victor. These solutions are tailored to the technology-driven world in which Iris lives—she discovers how to use e-calendars, PDAs, and virtual meetings to make her life easier, not more complicated. She applies the solutions, gets immediate results, and reclaims her life. The Hamster Revolution for Meetings focuses on a small number of high-impact best practices that really work. Included is a landmark case study that shows how 3,000 Capital One associates reclaimed ten days per year while improving meeting effectiveness by over 35 percent.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2008
12 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 13, 2018
Short little book on how to run meetings effectively. The ideas are ok. But it doesn't need a whole book.
March 2, 2016
I love meetings which produce useful outcomes, are productive, and worth the input, time, effort and cost of everyone attending. However, I hate meetings with no goals or purpose, that drift and divert themselves until the clock runs out, people get hungry, or people go home!
This book outlines some common sense approaches to making meeting productive.
Main points were:
- have an agenda and objective(s) for all meetings
- start meetings on time and finish meeting 5 minutes on more before the hour (or next likely slot for meetings) as people will appreciate not having to rush to the next meeting and have a break, and in return should attend your meeting on time
- review the value of each attendee
- summarise and publish if necessary the outcome of a meeting at the end of a meeting
- don't overrun in a meeting. if there is more to discuss then summarise it and plan a new meeting
This book outlines some common sense approaches to making meeting productive.
Main points were:
- have an agenda and objective(s) for all meetings
- start meetings on time and finish meeting 5 minutes on more before the hour (or next likely slot for meetings) as people will appreciate not having to rush to the next meeting and have a break, and in return should attend your meeting on time
- review the value of each attendee
- summarise and publish if necessary the outcome of a meeting at the end of a meeting
- don't overrun in a meeting. if there is more to discuss then summarise it and plan a new meeting
January 18, 2021
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Exec Emails: crisp, to the point. Remove distractions.
2. Next Steps: connect current email with future initiatives.
3. ABC: A = Action – specific purpose, response time. B = Background – Sculpt the body. Hone ideas, chunk key points. Define and limit attachments. Sequential numbering. Different ideas = bullet points. Limit to single-screening page. C = Close – next step and niceties
4. Subject Line: Descriptive, builds context. Examples: Info, Action, Request, Confirmed, Delivery
5. Greeting – 1 line, 8 words. Warm and concise. “Hi ___, thanks for sending …”
6. Action Summary – reader understands purpose/need. Helpful intro to the following content.
7. Response: Agreed. Confirmed. Final Decision.
8. Email Folders: limit to 5-7, COTA. Clients – internal/external. Output – teams products or services. Team. Administration – non-core job duties.
1. Exec Emails: crisp, to the point. Remove distractions.
2. Next Steps: connect current email with future initiatives.
3. ABC: A = Action – specific purpose, response time. B = Background – Sculpt the body. Hone ideas, chunk key points. Define and limit attachments. Sequential numbering. Different ideas = bullet points. Limit to single-screening page. C = Close – next step and niceties
4. Subject Line: Descriptive, builds context. Examples: Info, Action, Request, Confirmed, Delivery
5. Greeting – 1 line, 8 words. Warm and concise. “Hi ___, thanks for sending …”
6. Action Summary – reader understands purpose/need. Helpful intro to the following content.
7. Response: Agreed. Confirmed. Final Decision.
8. Email Folders: limit to 5-7, COTA. Clients – internal/external. Output – teams products or services. Team. Administration – non-core job duties.
January 7, 2010
Get a life and stop wasting time in meetings - a great read for businesses! Could have used this at several of the places I previously worked.
December 24, 2015
A quick read (with a cheesy story) but has some good meeting ideas. I'm not a big fan of everything having a cutesy name, but I can definitely use some of the techniques.
March 2, 2013
good practical tips on better meeting management. I am not a fan of the 'hamster' part of the book. Easy to read in a short period of time.
May 28, 2013
Easy to read novel/business book with great ideas to help decrease the email workload.
September 1, 2009
Sengkang Library 658.456
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews