Cameron Herold

I requested this book from the library after reading Herold's [b:Meetings Suck|30151122|Meetings Suck|Cameron Herold|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462854264s/30151122.jpg|50586200], which I received as part of a work group I'm in. Both books are fairly common sensical and very concise, under 200 pages for each. This might be why I like them: minimal yammer BS, less room for "if you hired my company as a consultant..." waste. Vivid Visions are briefly discussed in the Meetings book as one of the upper-end meeting types, the opposite of the 30 minute or 1 hour check-up. Brainstorm the big 3 year view, then reverse engineer backwards to get all the way back to your daily tasks.

Giving this one 3 stars because while I grabbed a lot of good quotes and ideas from this book, I don't feel that I have a more specific view (heh) of this process than I did reading the 1-2 paragraph summary version from the other title. The last two chapters weren't even about business but applying these principles to your personal life: he's not at all wrong, but that's not what I'm here for. It was helpful to see some examples included, but I would have liked a little more flesh on the brainstorming process to document process, and a bit more about the office dynamic of rolling this out. (Or maybe I'm just salty because I'd rather see a vision plan that calls for input from the team, rather than "oh, y'all can have this idea wall of miscellania...")

I'm also still a bit of a skeptic. "Make no small plans" is the underlying message of Vivid Visions, and I'm thinking of a specific situation on our campus that absolutely fits (tripling our graduation rate within 3 years)... but damn, it also is a bit discouraging rather than inspiring to have such an out-there target that it seems humanly impossible in the time allotted. (And I know that's recognized -- there's definitely a bit of "shoot for the moon" allowed, and that's mirrored here when he acknowledges that even if your vision isn't fulfilled in the allotted time, that doesn't mean you weren't better engaging employees and clients in the meantime.)

I feel conflicted because I feel simultaneously I got lots of little tidbits and practical foods-for-though, yet my overall takeaway still feels shallow (again, compared to my understanding based on the other blurb). Let's say 3.5 stars and I should probably round to 4 and have done with it, because I appreciate a professional book that doesn't waste my time. And yes, a lot of it will sound very familiar: "make no small plans," SMART goals, get them to why... are all ideas in evidence here. As I said, common sensical, but delivered in a tidy package.

And if you haven't read Meetings Suck at all, good news! (Though read that one, too, actually.)… (mais)

I think my team needs to read this book. Not so much because our meetings suck per se, but there's some nice little points about growth, being heard, transparency, and accountability that all would have a place to land (though if I could just ensure fertile ground for those points...).

Even some of the meeting types that didn't sound relevant to my academic (not corporate) setting still offered some ideas that resonated, at least personally. E.g. I don't do budgets but I'd like to know more about what's going on there, so I appreciated the author's calls for transparency. The longer-term strategy meetings also seem like an excellent call -- let's see, minus three months...May/June should be ours. Wonder if I can get this book adopted to that end (and others) by that time.

The only time I'm skeptical of, both on a personal and logistics level, is the twice-daily huddle. Really? And just not feasible for us as a department with our schedules and obligations that all vary from day-to-day and week-to-week. Maybe if just the FT librarians huddle, but there's only 2-3 of us, and we're tight communication-wise, sooooo. But that's fine. Well, and the weekly(?) one-on-one check-ins, which could be 30-60 min a pop. I appreciate the concept (and even more his encouragement to make them sacrosanct in your schedule and not skipped or deferred), but yow, that's a lot. Still, take a concept, alter to fit.

I also wish a few more strategies were provided for getting the quiet members of a meeting to contribute, especially as a meeting structure kind of strategy and not just "leader, shut up and let the group talk first so your authority doesn't smother." We've got people who maybe agree with what's being said so don't feel inclined to speak up with even an "agreed" (maybe head-nodding, though). We've got people who are just timid and don't like a spotlight, even in our small and familiar group, and surely there's alternatives to forever saying "person, what do you think?" But having clear agendas and outcomes pre-meeting may help with that -- it's certainly a conclusion we eventually realized for ourselves (being a horde of introverts) but now need to steer our leader towards.

Skipping/cancelling meetings is referred to as a "slippery slope," but no more exploration was given. I agree with that... but would like more commentary to chew on, especially in contrast to meeting advice to just cancel if there's nothing for the agenda rather than waste everyone's time. (And in contrast to the encouragement for teams to be able to run meetings even if the boss or others can't attend.) Obviously an examination of why regular meetings regularly have unfulfilled agendas is an issue the team needs to solve, and maybe that's a dysfunction beyond the scope of this book. There's deeper roots to some issues in my world for which the meetings are just a symptom.

So, as business books go... This one did not, to my surprise, suck.… (mais)