Focus, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

How to master meetings and networking

Other than information overload, paperwork and emails, the two topics that cause the most anxiety and frustration at work are meetings and networking. In this chapter you’ll find techniques for handling both. Let’s start with meetings and the most important questions you must ask.

Is this meeting really necessary?

Deleting is an important technique for handling paperwork and emails, and it applies just as much to meetings. Once they get started, meetings seem to take on a (long) life of their own. We’ll see in a moment how to minimise that, but even better is to cut out as many meetings as possible. If you are the one deciding whether to call a meeting, consider whether a memo, email, ...