Rabbits Gettin' Busy

I'm probably overstepping boundaries and violating etiquette here, but I've posted below an excerpt from an email that an old buddy with no permission or warning at all. This was one of my closest friends for many years, and he knows me well. I was very interested to read how he feels about meetings and why.

"I checked out the blog. I read through many entries and I have to be honest, I never would have know then that someone would have drawn so much interest and insight from the subject of meetings. I guess I am too over exposed to meetings that have no purpose, and accomplish nothing, because the key players continually contradict themselves over and over and never want to make a decision, unless it is the worst one possible. Like I said I think I'm jaded. But still it was very interesting to be able to read your thoughts. It seems you have come along way since giving presentations on the mating rituals of rabbits, or is it true that the human legacy goal is still an instinctual desire for preservation of self. Either way it sounds like you've improved the technology of the puppets."

I don't think he's alone in hating meetings. I also don't think he's the only one who hates them for these reasons. Only wanting to make decisions when "it is the worst one possible". That's gold. Why else do people hate meetings?

To bring some clarity to the message above, some background is in order...

We had to do book reports for some highschool English class. Everyone spoke about their book. I read a few books, so for my presentation decided to present on a common theme throughout them. I recall that 2 of the books were Watership Down, and Less Than Zero. The common theme was of course: sex. So in front of this innocent class of adolescents, I put up slides of the reproductive organs of humans and rabbits, and compared them. The "technology of the puppets" comment refers to portion of the presentation in which I took 2 rabbit puppets and showed the class how they engage in intercourse. I then compared to human practice and variations with a Ken and Barbie. Got 100% on that presentation.

Novelty, unique format, and shock value made it worth remembering for this guy 10+ years after. What else makes a presentation memorable? I'm part of a team that's building a workshop on presentations, and would value any feedback here. Expect many posts on presentations.

Dominating Strategic Planning

There is just so much that can go wrong in a strategic planning meeting.

I posted earlier about mechanism design (read here), and how an imbalance in levels of understanding can impact outcomes. In a meeting, we'd usually consider this to be gaps in mastery of the content and subject matter at hand. But in a strategic planning meeting, outcomes can also be warped to the detriment of an organization by different levels of understanding of process and format as well. Those less familiar with strategic planning often don't contribute as much as they should. Those more familiar can abuse their familiarity.

A few other of the innumerable people centric challenges in strategic planning meetings:

• Motivations - Everyone has their interests besides the greater good.
• Imposing personalities - Moderators can help, but if that one person that really wants to be heard and really doesn't want others to be heard wants it bad enough, they can ruin any meeting.
• Excessively passive personalities - Those who think their discomfort speaking in a group is a card that trumps any obligation to contribute.
• Over facilitation - A facilitator or moderator that is too driven by or attached to their process can blindly suffocate conversation; which is the lifeblood of any good meeting.
• Politickers - The answers and directions are clear in their mind. The objective is making everyone else see it so clearly... by nearly any means necessary.

I could go on, and really want to. But I won't right now. I'm trying to limit my word count.

What are some big ones I'm missing here?