A GTD Experiment
April 3rd, 2012 GTD Times Team - Staff ContributorsCategories | Getting Things Done | Implementation | Inspiration | Latest News
In a guest post on the Workshifting blog, read tips from Mike Williams, CEO for the David Allen Company (and vetted GTD coach!) on some simple ways to apply GTD. His post also includes an experiment for making your next meeting more effective.
Are there meeting tips that you have found helpful that others could benefit from? Share them here. Other GTD Times readers like to hear what works for you.
One tip, is not to have a question mark shaped table, because some of the delegates won’t be able to capture ideas very easily!
Agendas with times and/or appointing someone as timekeeper. Helps to keep things moving.
I’m interested in what people think about “measuring outcomes” vs. “visualizing outcomes” … someone over on the workshifting site mentioned the former, whereas it seems GTD’s language is very clear about creating a mental picture, an image, of the successful outcome. I don’t mean to split hairs, but it seems like measuring before you’ve even figured out the “what” is premature.
I agree with timed, focused, and detailed action item agendas that capture why we are meeting, what needs to be discussed or informed,what decisions need to be made, and what is everyone’s next actions. It is frusterating to me how many meeting notices are sent out with no agenda! If you don’t have the time to plan your meeting, I don’t have to time to attend it.
Recently group brainstorming and strategy development through meetings is fundamentally important. One important point is to inform participants about their role in the meeting. Different types of corporate meeting requires different mindset. Knowing it before meeting brings major difference.
Secondly, I have found agenda and structured meeting not so healthy for brainstorming meetings.
Schedule a meeting for an hour, show up 40 minutes late, have the meeting in 20 minutes, suggest scheduling it for 20 minutes next time.
Of course, you can’t do this often, and maybe only once or twice, but it gets the point across.