How to keep your meetings on track | Business Productivity

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Posted on February 11, 2013

How to keep your meetings on track

In May 2012 there was an article in the Wall Street Journal called, ?Meet the Meeting Killers.? In the article the columnist described four types of people that ruin effective meetings; ?The Jokester?, ?The Dominator?, ?The Naysayer? and ?The Rambler?. Anyone who has run meetings knows about these types of behaviors and how destructive they are to effective meetings. Another very common type of meeting killer in today?s gadget- filled world is ?The Multitasker?, the one who is constantly texting, surfing and doing email during the meeting. There is a lot of management guidance on how to manage these destructive meeting behaviors; Manager Tools provide a full podcast series with practical advice on how to manage each one of these meeting killers. In this article I wanted to give you a quick summary of what you can do to increase the likelihood of keeping your meetings on track.

1. Set meeting ground rules

The foundation for keeping your meetings on track is to set ground rules. You can read the ground rules that I follow for my meetings, in the blog article ?Running Effective Meetings?. The two most important rules to keep your meetings on track are to start and finish on time and to follow a pre-published agenda. If you can stick to these two ground rules you have come a long way. Another important rule, especially if you tend to have a lot of ?Ramblers? in your meetings, is to have a meeting ?parking lot?. The parking lot is for topics that are of interest, but that are not on the agenda and thus they need to be parked and the discussion continued at another time.

2. Share the ground rules and get buy in

For the ground rules to be effective everybody needs to know about them and commit to them. If you are running a recurring meeting where all the meeting participants know about the meeting rules, you can just quickly remind them that the rules apply and ask them if they agree to them. If you have new people attending the meeting, or if you are running the meeting for the first time, make sure you walk through each rule. You can also have a list of the ground rules on a flip chart or pin them up on a wall somewhere so that they are visible to everyone throughout the meeting.

3. Enforce the ground rules (when appropriate)

If someone starts rambling, and goes on and on about something, kindly refer back to the agenda. You can say something like, ?We have 5 more minutes allocated for this agenda item so let?s make it brief?. Or, if someone is rambling off topic, you can say, ?That?s an important point but we need to park it since we don?t have time allocated for that discussion in today?s meeting?. If someone is texting on their mobile or checking email, refer back to the point about being respectful to others and being present in the meeting. It is your responsibility as the meeting facilitator to keep the meeting on track, even if this means that you have to interrupt people.

However, for your own career?s sake, you should consider the seniority of the disruptive meeting participant before you interrupt him or her. If it?s your boss or someone who is more senior than you, that you don?t have a good relationship with, who is being disruptive, it might not be wise to interrupt. Depending on the situation you need to decide which is more important, running an effective meeting or risk annoying someone that might be important for your career progression.

4. If needed ? strengthen the ground rules

If you know beforehand that the meeting participants have certain tendencies that jeopardize the efficiency of the meeting you might need to strengthen, or add to your ground rules. So for instance, if you know that the meeting attendees are typical ?Multitaskers? clearly state a ground rule that says, ?No devices during meetings?. In one of their podcasts, Manager Tools recommend introducing something called ?The Fruit Bowl?. You put a bowl in the middle of the table and when the meeting starts all meeting attendees are asked to silence their devices and put them in the bowl.

If you know that you have nay-sayers in the meeting you might want to add a rule that says, ?A time and place for problems and solutions?. It?s ok to discuss problems, risks, issues and potential pitfalls during the meeting, but you need to make sure that these discussions don?t hijack the meeting. If you have time, embrace the challenges and ask the meeting delegates to come up with solutions. At a certain point in time you will need to decide to move on, and when the decision has been made, make it clear to everyone that there is no more room for raising concerns.

5. Get buy-in before the meeting

In certain circumstances, if one of the nay-sayers is more senior than you, and it?s really important to get that person on board, it might be a good idea to meet that person one on one and get buy in before the meeting. Listen to the issues/challenges/risks/pitfalls that he or she might bring up and let him or her ?vent?. Ask about possible solutions and recommendations for alleviating the problem.

6. Individual follow up after the meeting

Giving someone feedback or asking someone to change their behavior is not something you should do during the meeting. But to minimize the risk of it happening again, you can follow up with the person individually after the meeting. If it?s one of your subordinates that has made inappropriate jokes, or behaved in another manner that has disrupted the meeting give them feedback (read more about giving feedback in the article, ?How to give feedback?). If it?s a peer, then feedback might not be appropriate, but you can still let them know that their behavior isn?t contributing to an effective meeting. After the meeting, as you?re walking out, you can just lean over to the person and say, ?Hey, Jane, when you say , even if you meant it as a joke, some might take offense and it makes my job of running an effective meeting a bit harder. I just wanted to let you know!?

Respect cultures but do your thing when you?re in charge

I?m from Sweden, I?ve lived in the United States, I?ve studied in England and I now work in the Middle East. Meeting cultures vary drastically in different parts of the world. I?ll never forget the first meeting I had with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labor in the United Arab Emirates when I had just joined Microsoft in Dubai. In order not to offend anyone I had to put my agenda aside and totally forget about starting or finishing on time. You need to respect cultures and different meeting situations. With that said, if you are running a team meeting with your subordinates ? no matter what country you?re in or where your employees are from, you are in charge. So if you want to run effective meetings and be sure to stay on track, then go right ahead and follow this guidance.

(If you have difficulties reading this article, you can access the full article in pdf here)

Source: http://www.businessproductivity.com/how-to-keep-your-meetings-on-track/

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MacNN | iPhone News: Apple makes modest gains in Chinese phone share

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Android still dominant, but without Google apps

A new study from Strategy Analytics says that Android continues to be the dominant platform for smartphones in China, with 86 percent of the market. However, Apple's share has risen from 7.5 percent a year ago to 12 percent at the end of 2012, and the December release of the iPhone 5 is expected to take further market share from Android in this quarter. Remarkably, only two percent of smartphones sold in China -- including "local" brands sold exclusively in China -- are anything other than Android or Apple devices.

Mainland China saw significant growth in the overall smartphone market, now up to 53 million units (a 64 percent year-over-year increase). However in a country where a single carrier can have more than 100 million subscribers, the market for smartphones can still be described as "nascent" with plenty of opportunity for change. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said as much during quarterly conference calls, with analysts, and reported that over two million iPhone 5s were sold in the first weekend of retail availability, with hundreds of thousands of reservations in addition to retail sales.

A factor that is keeping Apple from doing even better in the region is the lack of deal with the country's largest carrier, China Mobile. Though available to the other two largest carriers, China Mobile has a total customer base of over 703 million subscribers, and represents Apple's best opportunity to reach the majority of potential customers. Apple has been in discussions with China Mobile over a deal for years, with signs suggesting that it is finally close to signing a contract.

Interestingly, the Android version used in China is not the same as the various versions offered in the US and other countries. Due to China's state control of the Internet, no Google apps (such as GMail or Maps) are included in the Chinese version of Android. No doubt, this government control is part of what has caused the long delay between Apple and China Mobile.

In the meantime, Apple has worked to make iPhones available at more points of sale, increasing outlets by 10,000 over the same period a year ago, adding new Apple Stores in the country and increasing the number of "premium" resellers to 400. In its most recent earnings statement, the company said that overall sales (almost entirely iPhones and iPad, with some iPod and Mac sales added) increased to nearly $7 billion, up from $4 billion a year ago.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who recently visited China again to meet with China Mobile and government officials there, said iPhone sales in the region had doubled from a year ago. Overall sales in the area Apple calls Greater China (including Hong Kong and Malaysia) totalled $7.3 billion in the December quarter. Analysts believe that Apple could sell around 40 million iPhones in 2013 in the entire Asia-Pacific region, but rarely offer guesses on how well the company will do specifically in China.

Due to the introduction of the iPhone 5 and the slow rollout of LTE service in some areas, the company is expected to do well over the next quarter or two, but if a deal with China Mobile is significantly delayed, Apple's chance of taking more market share away from market leader Samsung and other Android brands diminishes over time. Other players, such as Nokia, Microsoft and BlackBerry have all but given up on the possibility of penetrating the Chinese market in significant percentages.

By Electronista Staff

Source: http://feeds.smartphonemag.com/~r/iPhoneLife_News/~3/rR3mzM4d4rw/story01.htm

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

This Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo shows a hamburger and tater tots at a restaurant in Charlotte, N.C. Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks were more likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study released Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

This Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo shows a hamburger and tater tots at a restaurant in Charlotte, N.C. Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks were more likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study released Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

This Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo shows fried chicken, foreground, and fried chicken livers with hush puppies at a restaurant in Charlotte, N.C. Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks were more likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study released Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast ? the nation's "stroke belt" ? suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" ? the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older ? half of them black ? from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

?Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

?Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

?Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

?Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

?Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" ? for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure ? a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen ? the queen of Southern cuisine ? revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-02-07-US-MED-Southern-Food-Stroke/id-5b02f6121cb14e6c9cfeb84ec0814baf

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Kris Humphries Trade: Headed to Charlotte?

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Real-Life Vampire Addicted to Blood, Doctors Claim

In a chilling case report, doctors in Turkey have described what they claim to be a real-life vampire with multiple personalities and an addiction to drinking blood.

The 23-year-old married man apparently started out slicing his own arms, chest and belly with razor blades, letting the blood drip into a cup so he could drink it. But when he experienced compulsions to drink blood?"as urgent as breathing," he started turning to other sources, the doctors said.

The man, whose name and hometown were not revealed in the report, was arrested several times after stabbing and biting others to collect and drink their blood. He apparently even got his father to get him bags of the ghastly drink from blood banks, according to the report released today (Feb. 8) by the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The case study was published last fall.

The doctors said they found traumatic events in the man's life leading up to his two-year bloodsucking phase. His 4-month-old daughter became ill and died; he witnessed the murder of his uncle; and he saw another violent killing in which "one of his friends cut off the victim's head and penis," the researchers write in the journal article. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

The man had been seen talking to himself, and he claimed to be tormented by an "imaginary companion" who forced him to carry out violent acts and attempt suicide. He also had memory gaps in his daily life and reported instances of being in a new place without any idea of how he got there.

"Possibly due to 'switching' to another personality state, he was losing track during the 'bloody' events, did not care who the victim was anymore, and remained amnesic to this part of his act," the report said.

The doctors, led by Direnc Sakarya, of Denizli Military Hospital in southwestern Turkey,?ultimately diagnosed the man with dissociative identity disorder (DID), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic depression and alcohol abuse. To their knowledge, the man is the first patient with "vampirism" and DID.

Dissociative identity disorder was made famous by the story of Shirley Mason, or Sybil, who was diagnosed as having 16 separate personalities as a result of physical and sexual abuse by her mother. The authors of the vampire case study note that DID is often linked to childhood abuse and neglect. The blood addict's mother apparently had "freak out" episodes during his adolescence in which she attacked him, but the man also claimed to have no memory of his childhood between the ages of 5 and 11.

In a follow-up six weeks after he was treated, the doctors said the man's blood-drinking behavior was in remission, but his dissociative symptoms persisted. He also apparently insisted that his "drugs were merely sleeping pills, they would not cure him."

It's not clear whether the man suffered any health consequences because of his gruesome habit, but the human body isn't well adapted for digesting blood. While small quantities may be harmless, anyone who consumes blood regularly runs a risk of haemochromatosis (iron overdose) or contracting blood-borne diseases if they're sourcing it from other people.

And, of course, this man is not a true vampire in the mythical sense, a character most famously represented by Dracula and whose existence is tied to superstition.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/real-life-vampire-addicted-blood-doctors-claim-204633772.html

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Video: New winter storm poised to hit

>> where is this storm right now? the view from above shows it continues to head northeast out of maine and into canada. but this being the middle of winter another storm is never far behind. weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is in boston with more on that. jim, good evening.

>> good evening, lester. just as soon as the blizzard warnings for this storm go down, the new ones have come up for the plains states . six states here stretching all the way from kansas out up in through nebraska, including minnesota, minneapolis under a winter storm warning here. this area should start precipitation tonight in the rockies, and it should rapidly spread out of the plains states . as we get into sunday, though, you'll notice north damage to, south dakota , minnesota dealing with all of this snow. we are expecting 6 to 10 inches in minneapolis. 50 to 60-mile-per-hour winds. there will also be a severe side to this, too, lester. there could be tornadoes in louisiana, mississippi, and also in to alabama. as we move into monday, no rest for the weary up here. that same storm moves right overhead. boston , providence, hartford, portland, maine, who had a record-setting snowfall today, will not be dealing with snow this time, we feel it's going to be more of an ice storm here. so the second big dig here in boston , if you will, needs to be completed in 36 hours , because on top of that, we've got a layer of ice to come.

>> wouldn't you know it. jim

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50756964/

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