“How do we engage our new Gen Y employees at meetings where we are trying to disseminate information?” asked the woman in the audience at the US Patent and Trademark Office the other day.

I had just finished a presentation as part of a panel on social marketing there.

Without hesitating, I replied, “well, you should stop having meetings to disseminate information, for starters. Meetings should be to solve problems. To inform people, use email or any one of a hundred other ways that are faster, easier, and cheaper.”

I didn’t pull any punches and said, “and, oh, by the way, stop having boring meetings. If they aren’t “remarkable,” then why the hell should anyone pay attention in them anyway?”

The woman nodded.

Later, I found out that the questioner was none other than the Commissioner of the US Patent and Trademark Office!

But knowing that beforehand wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Most meetings ARE boring.

They ARE a waste of time.

They don’t really DO anything.

And it’s sucking our collective wills to do the truly creative stuff that is going to allow our companies and our organizations to thrive in this challenging, multi-billion channel universe that is at the core of the Attention Economy.

So, What to Do?

As luck would have it, the next day, I received my advance copy of Read This Before Our Next Meeting as a member of the Domino Street Team (disclosure: received for free)

As I have with previous Domino Project books (see Poke the Box, Self-Reliance, and Anything You Want), I immediately jumped into it, knowing it would be high quality.

It was and it is.

Within 40 minutes, I was 50% of the way through. I finished it up in a 2nd reading a few days later.

What Read This Before Our Next Meeting is two things.

First, he provides the argument as to why most meetings today are terrible. Not that you need convincing, but he provides the context of how we got here.

Second, and most importantly, it’s a guidebook for the “Modern Meeting.”

It’s as if you are taking Seth Godin’s “Be Remarkable”/Purple Cow mantra and applying it to one tactic, this is what it would look like.

According to Al Pittampalli, Peter Drucker (you always win w/me by quoting him) says that “meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization.”

Meetings, he argues, should not be to discuss various options. It should be for two things

1. Conflict—here’s my decision, now tell me why I’m wrong
2. Coordination-here’s my decision, now let’s figure out how to leverage all of the resources at the table to make it happen.

Radical? Yes, indeed, but “change is never met with open arms. Great decision involve risk and risk scares people; it’s natural for great ideas to get attacked or, worse, ignored.”

What’s more, there are ground rules.

1. The leader needs to set a clear agenda and provide background information beforehand
2. They should not be “inclusive.” If someone is there who can’t really add value, they shouldn’t be there.
3. What’s more, if you don’t participate, you should be asked to leave. Otherwise, what value are you adding?
4. If you aren’t prepared when you show up (or show up late—I love this one), you aren’t invited back.

And this is just some of them.

Meetings, when all is said and done, are expensive. But, not just in cost of people’s time. They are expensive in how they sap energy and enthusiasm. They are expensive in that things don’t get done.

This book, this idea, this “movement’ isn’t for everyone. That’s for sure.

It’s for people who agree with the core statement:

“No more will we allow our time to be consistently wasted thirty minutes at a time. Our time is too precious, too fleeting.”

Compounded time is your potential competitive advantage. Your career can’t afford to have it squandered in bad meetings any longer.

If you are part of this tribe, then pick up the book.

The rest will eventually get there anyway.

As for me…I’m fired up (not just because I was *right* when I spoke to the commissioner). I’ve got a client kick-off meeting at the end of the month and I get to test this approach immediately.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m optimistic.

For the brave who are willing to give it a shot, I’m optimistic for their careers as well. They are headed for Linchpin city.

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