The above is Working For The Man video #5, inspired by the Working For The Man book. That’s the awesome Jaime Mendola nailing the brain-numbing experience of that all-too common "brainstorming" meeting. Jessica Reed did the excellent camera work, and the masterful editing was done by Kevin Leslie.
Here are some more tips on how NOT to run a meeting. These are things you don’t want to do:
Show up late to a meeting which is primarily being held to update you, so that everyone has to back up and repeat what they’ve already gone over.
Open up the meeting by saying, "I didn’t prepare anything, I just wanted to get everyone together."
Collate and staple your handouts after the appointed meeting start-time, and everyone has already arrived.
Let the same person keep speaking up and dominating every new topic of discussion.
Explain that you ran out of time and didn’t have a chance to place a food order, so the lunch promised in the meeting invite will not be served.
Announce that your stomach just growled, and then keep asking if anyone else heard it.
Open up the meeting for discussion so that everyone starts talking at once and you have to shout, "Shhhhhh. Shhhhhh. Shhhhhh. One at a time, please. Shhhhhh."
Say how tired you are, again and again and again.
Tell everyone if people don’t get their shit together, "We’ll all be out of a job."
Explain that it’s the cold medicine you are taking that is the reason you aren’t making any sense.
Let incoming calls and messages on your Blackberry or phone keep announcing themselves with audible vibration.
Lay out a puzzle on the conference room table and explain that you want to show everyone how fun it can be to work together.
Apologize (over and over and over again) for not being able to get the slide projector working.
Engage someone directly, and then immediately look down at your Blackberry and finger a message when they start speaking.
Berate someone who brings up an idea that has already been brought up.
Say you ran out of time and that is why your Powerpoint presentation sucks and does not include the most recent data.
Excitedly discuss your recent vacation, or blather on and on about how your recent vacation was ruined.
Frantically mouth direction to your assistant while others are talking.
Continue to ask for ideas (over and over again) well past the appointed end-time for the meeting.
More Working For The Man videos here. More on the Working For The Man book here.