The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings by Anthony Tjan
The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings – Anthony Tjan – HarvardBusiness.org
Anthony Tjan Upstarts and Titans
The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings1:04 PM Tuesday June 23, 2009
Tags:Organizational culture, Personal effectiveness, Time management
Here is a simple managerial tip for meeting effectiveness that I learned some years ago.
Outside of general relationship building, consider that there are only three functional purposes for having a business meeting:
1. To inform and bring people up to speed.
2. To seek input from people.
3. To ask for approval.Use this as a filter to determine why you are having a meeting and explain that purpose to your audience. Your meetings may often cut across multiple objectives but forcing yourself to clarify the agenda into these three purposes can result in more effective meetings.
Consider a meeting that sets its agenda goals along the lines of: “I want to bring you up to speed on these two things; I need input on this item; and finally I would like to seek your approval on these outstanding issues.” That’s it — a simple 3 purpose meeting rule that frames the goals of the meeting from the perspective of the meeting participant.
If you haven’t figured it out, the purpose of this blog was twofold: to inform you on this framework and seek your input on it. What do you think?
YOU!!! Are Scripture. – Mark Batterson
Company of Translators
We have access to hundreds of Bible translations in every size and shape imaginable. So we tend to take Scripture for granted. But I’m grateful for the translators, across the centuries, who devoted their lives to translating the sacred text into new languages. I think of the 72 Jewish elders recruited by Ptolemy II to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. I think of the 47 scholars who translated the Textus Receptus into Elizabethan English. Some translators, such as William Tyndale, even gave their lives to give us their translations.
The sacrifices they made ought to increase our appreciation for Scripture. But my point is much loftier than that: you are among the company of translators. For better or for worse, your life is your unique translation. Just like the Septuagint or King James Version, your life translates Scripture into a language those around your can read. God doesn’t just want to speak to you through Scripture; He wants to speak through you. He wants to write His-story through your life. And Scripture is the script.
How to know you are.
In my years as a Discipleship Pastor I went through a bit of a transformation as I struggled with how to best measure success. At first it was setting the audacious goal of having every member in a small group. When I couldn’t even get every elder in a small group it became abundantly clear that my goal was either unrealistic or just plain wrong. As I evaluated it also became abundantly clear that we really were not doing a good job as a church at tracking how we were doing. The two default metrics for every church to measure is attendance and money, and that is basically what we were doing.
After transitioning into my new role as Serve Pastor, aka Missions Pastor, I ran across Brennan Manning’s book shipped from Neue, aka Relevant, and it all became quite simple…
“How do your people love?”
How well…
How often…
Who…
Dave Gibbons, at the Story Conference, raised questions that really point back to,
“How does your leadership love?”
2 Peter 1:1-13 is a passage worth hanging on the wall of every Church Leader, Discipleship Pastor, and Church Guru. The end result in making Disciples is Christlikeness, and Christlikeness’s primary character trait is Love.
Verse 3 implies that our knowledge of Jesus should grow. Verse 5 implies that the promises of Jesus need to be applied for growth to take place. Verses 5-8 indicate that the end product of growing will be love for EVERYONE. In fact, growing in knowledge is synonymous with growing in love.
The Church is in trouble when partaking in Bible Study is more important than serving widows, orphans, and the poor. Studying the Bible is beneficial, but it should never be done in lieu of or instead of APPLYING it through acts of service to the unloved.
Here’s the rub…this is not easy, nor comfortable. This kind of love is a violent kind of love that reaches inside the hearts of people exposes their wicked and diseased hearts and offers the balm of the blood of Jesus Christ that will heal them. More on this later…