Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I had lunch with Anne Sophie. Having arrived first at the restaurant she had booked, I took the time to choose our table. Mainly so that our conversation would be comfortable and we could both be as sheltered as possible from the distractions of the room. What about…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I was sitting in on a management committee meeting. One by one, team members of a committee member came in to present a topic and win the support of management. The share of voice each director left to their team member varied enormously. Some introduced the topic and…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I was observing a management committee meeting. The boss was on every ball. He was very quick to interrupt the presenters. I tried to work out whether it was the symptom of a swollen ego or of uncontrolled impatience. Simon SINEK’s video, entitled “be the last to speak”,…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I was sitting in a meeting with fifteen people in a room and others joining remotely. At 4.29pm, a first person stood up, without a word. From 4.32pm, I watched two others close their laptops and angle their bodies towards the exit. At 4.35pm, four people got up…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I was facilitating the kick-off meeting of a working group. Before announcing (reading out) the objective I had prepared, I suggested a round-robin with a simple question: “what will make you say that this kick-off meeting was a success?” I listened closely to the four answers, all different:…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I read an American article about how the company Zapier had organised a “zero meetings” week. The article described how this radical initiative had led the teams to imagine and adopt new ways of collaborating, with the help of asynchronous working apps. It also looked at the effect…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday, I took part in a discussion about the role of Chiefs of Staff in COMEX and CODIR meetings. Very quickly the question arose of the Chief of Staff’s isolation — caught between all the information they have access to thanks to their proximity to the leadership, and the…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I was reading the comments of a participant in a webinar I ran on Friday. She told me she had learnt nothing. I took the time to call her. First of all to thank her for taking the time to answer the questionnaire I had sent out after…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday, a contact worried about the quality of his team meetings called me with the following question: “What advice would you give to stop team meetings being a waste of time for the participants, team leader included?” I immediately replied that the first thing to do was to apply…
Translated from the French original. Just yesterday I went to see the current exhibition at the Fondation EDF (rue Juliette Récamier, near Sèvres Babylone in Paris). The exhibition is well worth the detour. Entitled “Faut-il voyager pour être heureux ?”, it is devoted to tourism and travel. It offers installations, films, photographs and terminals giving…
