Member Reviews

A no-nonsense book with interesting recommendations to survive on the workplace. Nothing really new, but packed full of common sense and good practices.

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I've been there at least once, you've been there probably too: those neverending time consuming meetings, when doodling is the only answer you have for the wasted time doing nothing. At least, you improve your creativity level, while your meeting is going nowhere. Maybe you were yourself the one who asked for a meeting without having any clear plan in mind and tortured your co-workers to your incoherent, time-killing babbling.
All of you would definitely appreciate the tips and inspiration shared in this book by Rick Brinkman, whose special skill is to help busy business people and their employees to save time and be more organised for the benefit of your business productivity. It offers practical tutorials suited for various types of meetings and assignments, including by recommending when exactly you better decide not having a meeting at all.
Recommended to small business owners and entrepreneurs, human resources consultants and managers as well as anyone who really want to end up the cycle of those meetings 'you can't stand'.

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This book actually had some pretty good ideas that I'm going to try to implement where I work. Some of them were pretty standard (such as "start and end on time"), but others were creative and I think could be very useful (the agenda setting procedure and format, for example). As with most of these types of books, I do wish there was more about how to actually implement this (aka get people to go along with it and get managers to actually do it).

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#DealingWithMeetingsYouCan'tStand,meetLessAndDoMore #NetGalley

Very well explained the strategies to take during the meetings to pass the message and avoid conflicts.

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A decent read for anyone that has ever had the life sucked from them at the sheer thought of yet another pointless meeting! Not entirely sure I learned anything new from the content but it was a solid reminder or checklist of all the things we know we should be doing but fail to do. A handy reference for those days when you're at risk of meeting murder!

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What was this supposed to be? Not an actual book but more like a clickbait?

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I wish I could distribute a copy of this book to everyone in every office I walk into! It is a bit of a game changer for meetings and general office politics. Who hasn’t encountered the tank, the grenade, the know-it-all, the winer, etc.? Author Rick Brinkman breaks down what makes people behave as they do in certain scenarios and discusses the best ways to curtail their negative behavior for more productive meetings. The suggestions for utilizing individuals to fulfill three essential roles in facilitating a successful session are helpful and insightful. Does everyone need to come to the table? I would recommend reading this thoughtful, useful and practical book to find out. Many items in this book can also be applied to improve the general office environment and be used in your personal life as well. I give it a solid 5 stars.

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If you've been to a meeting or two and never gained much from it then this book is what you ought to read. The author takes a look at what's involved in a meeting from the people, place, agenda and even the preparation that went into the meeting. His tone of writing is both friendly as it's astute and you'll learn a new thing or two. For me it was the importance of a preflight checklist, where I have to know the reasons for calling for a meeting and to whom it'd be relevant. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. Every reader who has been called to a meeting at some point in their life would enjoy this book, and it's also a wake up call on productivity for leaders and bosses.

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