Effective meeting basics

An effective meeting is a business meeting that serves certain desired purposes in an

optimal way. While meetings are among the core tools for making things happen in any
organizations, they often consume too much time and resources. The two natural benefits of
more effective meetings are:

• Better desired outcomes for you and your organization, including higher quality and
quantity of the results from your projects, better decisions, motivation of the people
involved, and so on.
• Lower costs in time, energy, and other resources for you and your people, leaving
more of those resources to other mission critical tasks.

To ensure higher effectiveness for your corporate or other business meetings you will need
to reevaluate and possibly improve your actions in the following two main areas:

• Meeting planning and preparation, covering such critical elements as clarifying the
desired outcomes in an agenda, communicating those objectives to the people
involved, inviting the right people, allowing people to prepare, choosing the proper
time and place, and arranging the necessary technical support.
• Conducting meetings, including such meeting management aspects as keeping the
meeting focused, using an effective meeting chair, maintaining atmosphere when all
participants can contribute most effectively, and making sure that all valuable points
are properly captured (in the meeting minutes).

Finally, if you want to improve just one thing this time, then start from being more
selective. Before another meeting is called, ask yourself wether this meeting is worth
everyone's time. Does it really surve any worthwhile purpose? Probably the least effective
meeting to have is the one that has a hidden agenda to simply make an impression of
activity. To create an excuse to procrastinate on or escape from taking the necessary
actions. To substitute activities for accomplishments.
Effective meeting planning and organization
guidelines
Good meeting planning is a necessary prerequisite for any effective business meeting. Here
are the key considerations and practical tips to guide you through the meeting organization
process.

The first and foremost question to ask before you start planning any meeting is “What are
the desired outcomes from that meeting?”Clarify the answers and write them down.
Addressing this question first is absolutely critical for anything else you do in connection to
that meeting.

The second critical question is “What is the best tool to reach that
outcome?” Remember that a meeting is just one of the tools of interpersonal
communication. Like any tool, it serves well for certain situations, but may be inadequate or
inefficient for others. In particular, could any of the objectives of the expected meeting be
better achieved some other way? For example, by sending an email, writing a memo,
having a one-on-one conversation, or just making a decision on your own. Or maybe the
purpose is already obsolete, and your meetings are held just by tradition?

It does not make much difference how well planned is the meeting if that meeting does not
need to be conducted in the first place.

The next important question of meeting planning and organization is“Who are the right
people to be at the meeting?” Are there any people who are not expected to get any
noticeable benefits or to give any relevant help in this particular meeting? No need to waste
their time. On the other hand, could you invite an additional person who could provide some
helpful expertise, insights, or first hand facts relevant for the meeting purposes?

Decide on the appropriate meeting format. Given the meeting purpose and participants,
would it work better as formal or informal? Public or private? More like a conference with a
number of presentations? Does it have to serve certain corporate regulations?

Who will chair the meeting? The chair person, whether it is you or somebody else, needs
enough authority and ability to keep meeting running smoothly. At the same time, the chair
person should be able to remain neutral and not dominating in conducting the meeting. His
or her focus is on keeping the meeting productive, rather than on just using his role to
promote his or her own contribution or standing. An effective chairperson keeps the meeting
on track, maintains constructive and positive atmosphere, ensures that nobody hijacks or
sabotages the meeting, and helps all participants contribute most effectively.

The next meeting planning step is to decide on time and place. Of course, you want to
schedule time when all the participants, or at least the majority, are available. Yet, pay
attention to other factors as well. Are there any events or engagements near the meeting
time that will compete for the attendees attention. What would be the likely energy and
mind state of the participants? In particular, you may want to avoid Monday mornings or
Friday afternoons for a corporate meeting that focuses on mission critical business issues.

As for meeting location, use the following considerations.

• Minimizing interruptions and distractions.

• Ease of access to any special sources of information, if relevant for that meeting.
• Maintaining energetic business atmosphere. You may want to avoid too relaxing or
too recreational environments, or too much food.
• Keeping the costs reasonable, adequate for the meeting purposes and context.

At this point of meeting organization you are finally ready to prepare and distribute an
agenda, based on the desired outcomes of the meeting.

The agenda is one of the most important documents of meeting planning. It should
communicate clearly and briefly the purpose of the meeting, the schedule of the
presentations by the participants, and the key points for discussion, all with specific time
frames. Put the more important presentations and points first.

Having a clear agenda that is properly communicated to everyone before the meeting
serves a number of purposes, both before and during the meeting. Before the meeting, the
agenda allows everyone to prepare. Even when no practical action steps are required or
done, the agenda prepares everyone’s conscious and subconscious minds for more effective
work during the meeting. During the meeting, the agenda sets priorities and time
frames. It is a necessary tool for keeping the meeting focused and productive.
What is planning and why you need to plan
Planning is one of the most important project management and time management
techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal.
If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the
goal.

A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have
progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing
where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.

One more reason why you need planning is again the 80/20 Rule. It is well established that
for unstructured activities 80 percent of the effort give less than 20 percent of the valuable
outcome. You either spend much time on deciding what to do next, or you are taking many
unnecessary, unfocused, and inefficient steps.

Planning is also crucial for meeting your needs during each action step with your time,
money, or other resources. With careful planning you often can see if at some point you are
likely to face a problem. It is much easier to adjust your plan to avoid or smoothen a
coming crisis, rather than to deal with the crisis when it comes unexpected.

How to write an action plan

When writing an action plan to achieve a particular goal or outcome, you can get much help
from the following steps.

• Clarify your goal. Can you get a visual picture of the expected outcome? How can
you see if you have reached your destination? What does make your goal
measurable? What constraints do you have, like the limits on time, money, or other
resources.
• Write a list of actions. Write down all actions you may need to take to achieve
your goal. At this step focus on generating and writing as many different options and
ideas as possible. Take a sheet of paper and write more and more ideas, just as they
come to your mind. While you are doing this, try not to judge or analyze.
 • Analyze, prioritize, and prune. Look at your list of actions. What are the
absolutely necessary and effective steps to achieve your goal? Mark them somehow.
After that, what action items can be dropped from in the plan without significant
consequences for the outcome. Cross them out.
• Organize your list into a plan. Decide on the order of your action steps. Start
from looking at your marked key actions. For each action, what other steps should
be completed before that action? Rearrange your actions and ideas into a sequence
of ordered action steps. Finally, look at your plan once again. Are there any ways to
simplify it even more?
• Monitor the execution of your plan and review the plan regularly. How much
have you progressed towards your goal by now? What new information you have
got? Use this information to further adjust and optimize your plan.

Effective Meetings - Tips

The following are some tips to help you make your next meeting successful, effective and
maybe even fun.

Before The Meeting

1. Define the purpose of the meeting.

2. Develop an agenda in cooperation with key participants. See a sample agenda.

3. Distribute the agenda and circulate background material, lengthy documents or articles
prior to the meeting so members will be prepared and feel involved and up-to-date.

4. Choose an appropriate meeting time. Set a time limit and stick to it, if possible.
Remember, members have other commitments. They will be more likely to attend meetings
if you make them productive, predictable and as short as possible.

5. If possible, arrange the room so that members face each other, i.e., a circle or semi-
circle. For large groups, try U-shaped rows.

6. Choose a location suitable to your group's size. Small rooms with too many people get
stuffy and create tension. A larger room is more comfortable and encourages individual
expression.
7. Use visual aids for interest (e.g., posters, diagrams, etc.). Post a large agenda up front to
which members can refer.

8. Vary meeting places if possible to accommodate different members. Be sure everyone

knows where and when the next meeting will be held.

During The Meeting

1. Greet members and make them feel welcome, even late members when appropriate.

2. If possible, serve light refreshments; they are good icebreakers and make your members
feel special and comfortable.

3. Start on time. End on time.

4. Review the agenda and set priorities for the meeting.

5. Stick to the agenda.

6. Encourage group discussion to get all points of view and ideas. You will have better
quality decisions as well as highly motivated members; they will feel that attending
meetings is worth their while.

7. Encourage feedback. Ideas, activities and commitment to the organization improve when
members see their impact on the decision making process.

8. Keep conversation focused on the topic. Feel free to ask for only constructive and non-
repetitive comments. Tactfully end discussions when they are getting nowhere or becoming
destructive or unproductive.

9. Keep minutes of the meeting for future reference in case a question or problem arises.

10. As a leader, be a role model by listening, showing interest, appreciation and confidence
in members. Admit mistakes.

11. Summarize agreements reached and end the meeting on a unifying or positive note. For
example, have members volunteer thoughts of things they feel have been good or
successful or reiterate the organization's mission.
12. Set a date, time and place for the next meeting.

After The Meeting

1. Write up and distribute minutes within 3 or 4 days. Quick action reinforces importance of
meeting and reduces errors of memory.

2. Discuss any problems during the meeting with other officers; come up with ways
improvements can be made.

3. Follow-up on delegation decisions. See that all members understand and carry-out their
responsibilities.

4. Give recognition and appreciation to excellent and timely progress.

5. Put unfinished business on the agenda for the next meeting.

6. Conduct a periodic evaluation of the meetings. Note any areas that can be analyzed and
improved for more productive meetings. See a sample meeting evaluation.

And remember, effective meetings will keep them coming back!

Time management skills and techniques

Time management skills are your abilities to recognize and solve personal time
management problems. The goal of these time management lessons is to show you what
you can do to improve those skills.

With good time management skills you are in control of your time and your life, of your
stress and energy levels. You make progress at work. You are able to maintain balance
between your work, personal, and family lives. You have enough flexibility to respond to
surprises or new opportunities.
All time management skills are learnable. More than likely you will see much improvement
from simply becoming aware of the essence and causes of common personal time
management problems. With these time management lessons, you can see better which
time management techniques are most relevant for your situation.

Just get started with them. Many of your problems gradually disappear.

If you already know how you should be managing your time, but you still don't do it, don't
give up. What you may be overlooking is the psychological side of your time management
skills, psychological obstacles hidden behind your personality.

Depending on your personal situation, such obstacles may be the primary reason why you
procrastinate, have difficulties saying no, delegating, or making time management
decisions.

The psychological component of your time management skills can also be dealt with. The
time management skills information below will point at a relevant solution for your situation.

Eliminate procrastination
The essence of procrastination is very well reflected in this quote by Bernard
Meltzer: "Hard work is often the easy work you did not do at the proper time."

Are you affected?

Have you ever seen your most important tasks being put off until later and then later and
later, while you are getting busy with many not so important activities? Did you hope that
you may have more time and better mood in the future to start the task and do it properly?
Does an approaching deadline mean a crisis for you? Do you keep hesitating every time you
make a decision?

If you often see yourself in such low productivity situations, then there is a big chance that
your life got under control of the procrastination habit. And those situations are only the
most explicit symptoms.
What is it?
A basic definition of procrastination is putting off the things that you should be doing now.
This happens with all of us time after time.

Yet, what makes a big difference for your success is your ability to recognize procrastination
reasons and expressions in their different forms, and to promptly take them under control,
before this bad habit steals your opportunities, damages your career and pride, or destroys
your relationships. So why do not you do it now?

Causes of procrastination

What are typical reasons why you procrastinate? Here are a few
of the most common situations to consider in your anti
procrastination efforts.

It can be as simple as

• Waiting for the right mood

• Waiting for the right time

Then look at the way you organize your work. You may notice other reasons for
procrastination like

• Lack of clear goals

• Underestimating the difficulty of the tasks
• Underestimating the time required to complete the tasks
• Unclear standards for the task outcomes
• Feeling as the tasks are imposed on you from outside
• Too ambiguous tasks

And there are also many connections with

• Underdeveloped decision making skills

• Fear of failure or fear of success
• Perfectionism
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Decision making skills and techniques

We use our decision making skills to solve problems by selecting one course of action from
several possible alternatives. Decision making skills are also a key component of time
management skills.

Decision making can be hard. Almost any decision involves some conflicts or dissatisfaction.
The difficult part is to pick one solution where the positive outcome can outweigh possible
losses. Avoiding decisions often seems easier. Yet, making your own decisions and
accepting the consequences is the only way to stay in control of your time, your success,
and your life. If you want to learn more on how to make a decision, here are some decision
making tips to get you started.

A significant part of decision making skills is in knowing and practicing good decision making
techniques. One of the most practical decision making techniques can be summarized in
those simple decision making steps:

1. Identify the purpose of your decision. What is exactly the problem to be solved?
Why it should be solved?
 2. Gather information. What factors does the problem involve?
3. Identify the principles to judge the alternatives. What standards and
judgement criteria should the solution meet?
4. Brainstorm and list different possible choices. Generate ideas for possible
solutions. See more on extending your options for your decisions on
my brainstorming tips page.
5. Evaluate each choice in terms of its consequences. Use your standards and
judgement criteria to determine the cons and pros of each alternative.
6. Determine the best alternative. This is much easier after you go through the
above preparation steps.
7. Put the decision into action. Transform your decision into specific plan of action
steps. Execute your plan.
8. Evaluate the outcome of your decision and action steps.What lessons can be
learnt? This is an important step for further development of your decision making
skills and judgement.

Final remark. In everyday life we often have to make decisions fast, without enough time to
systematically go through the above action and thinking steps. In such situations the most
effective decision making strategy is to keep an eye on your goals and then let your
intuition suggest you the right choice.

Use a decision tree analysis to systematically

arrive at your smartest choice
A decision tree is one of the most systematic tools of decision-making theory and practice.
Such trees are particularly helpful in situations of complex multistage decision problems. For
example, when you need to plan and organize a sequence of decisions and take into
account how the choices made at earlier stages and the outcomes of possible external
events determine the types of decisions and events at later stages of that sequence.

A decision making tree is essentially a diagram that represents, in a specially organized

way, the decisions, the main external or other events that introduce uncertainty, as well as
possible outcomes of all those decisions and events.

Here is a schematic example that illustrates the basic elements of decision trees.
Squares represent decisions you can make. The lines that come out of each square on its
right show all the available distinct options that can be selected at that decision analysis
point.

Circles show various circumstances that have uncertain outcomes (For example, some types
of events that may affect you on a given path). The lines that come out of each circle
denote possible outcomes of that uncontrollable circumstance. Write down above each such
line in the decision tree your best guesses for probabilities (for example, “80%” or “0.8”) of
those different outcomes.

Each path that can be followed along the decision tree, from left to right, leads to some
specific outcome. You need to describe those end results in terms of your main criteria for
judging the results of your decisions. Ideally, you will assign each end outcome a
quantitative measure of the overall total benefit you will receive from that outcome (you can
express it as a perceived monetary value).

Now you have a complete decision making tree with specific numbers for both the
probabilities of the uncertain events and the benefit measures (desirability) of each end
result. At this stage the tree can give you more specific recommendation on what would be
your best choices.

In particular, for each choice that you control (at the decision points shown by squares),
you can calculate the overall desirability of that choice. Just sum the benefit measures of all
the end outcomes that can be traced back to that choice (via one path or another),
weighted by the probabilities of the corresponding paths. This will show you the preferred
choice (the one with the highest overall desirability).

If you have more than one decision point, you need to do that calculation for the decisions
that are at the latest stages first. Identify the choice that gives the highest overall
desirability and leave only that branch (removing the decision point). Do the same with the
remaining squares, working your way to the left (to the first decision point in the sequence).

The power of intuition in decision making

As our life becomes more dynamic and less structured, intuition gains more and more
recognition as an essential decision making tool. You have probably heard of experienced
decision makers who are able to directly recognize the best option or course of action in
many tricky situations. The solution just comes to them from somewhere in their
subconscious mind, instead of being a result a lengthy chain of logical derivations or a
computer output from a complicated Monte Carlo simulation.

Yes, intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker, especially when you deal
with non-standard situations or in expedient decision making. Yet, before you put more
weight on intuitive choices, there are a few important points you need to keep in mind.

When do you need intuition?

Decision making situations where intuitive approach can help most include the following.

• Expedient decision making and rapid response are required. The circumstances leave
you no time to go through complete rational analysis.
• Fast paced change. The factors on which you base your analysis change rapidly.
• The problem is poorly structured.
 • The factors and rules that you need to take into account are hard to articulate in an
unambiguous way.
• You have to deal with ambiguous, incomplete, or conflicting information.
• There is no precedent.

What is intuition?
First, what do we mean by intuition in the context of decision-making? While different
definitions emphasize different aspects, there are three key features that characterize the
intuitive mode of thinking.

1. The process is dominated by your subconscious mind, even if you use your conscious
mind to formulate or rationalize the final results.
2. The information is processed in parallel rather than sequentially. Instead of going
through a logical sequence of thoughts one by one, you see the situation more as a
whole, with different fragments emerging in parallel.
3. You are more connected with your emotions. For example, it may occur to you that
an option you consider does not feel right, even though there is no clear logic to
prove that.

Intuition versus rational analysis

The main alternative to the intuition-based approach is rational thinking. The rational
decision making process relies mostly on logic and quantitative analysis. You consciously
analyze all the options. You formulate the main criteria for judging the expected outcomes
of your options and you assign certain weights to those criteria to reflect their relative
importance. Then, based on the expected outcomes and their weights, you rate your
options by their perceived utility. Finally, you choose the option that has the highest rating.

If, for some options, the expected outcomes involve uncertainty, you will also need to
incorporate in your ratings the perceived probabilities of different possibilities, or even
perform a Monte Carlo simulation.

Rational analysis still plays crucial role in many situations, especially when you have clear
criteria and have to deal with extensive quantitative data, like quantitative finance. Yet, you
will likely face even more business situations where the rational decision making becomes
impractical.
How it works
The simplest way to make sense of why and how intuition works is to think of it as an
advanced pattern recognition device. Your subconscious mind somehow finds links between
your new situation and various patterns of your past experiences. You may not recall most
of the details of those experiences. And even if you did, it may be very hard to express the
lessons you learnt in a form acceptable for analytical reasoning. Yet, your subconscious
mind still remembers the patterns learnt. It can rapidly project your new circumstances
onto those patterns and send you a message of wisdom. That message comes as your inner
voice and will most likely be expressed in the language of your feelings. For example, some
of the options or solutions you consider may not feel right to you.

How to use intuition effectively

The first important thing to keep in mind is that even when you rely on intuition it is still
very important to do your homework. The intuition will help you navigate faster through
much of unstructured data and can work around certain gaps and conflicts in the available
information. Yet, even intuition can be misled if too many of your facts are wrong or
missing.

Pay attention to your emotional state. If you are stressed or in a bad mood, your true inner
voice will be distorted or lost in the background of your strong negative feelings. A similar
effect may happen with strong positive feelings. If you want to hear your inner voice, get
over the background of your strong feelings. Feel them through or let them go. Take a walk.
Do something refreshing. Say your prayers. Forgive and accept. Sigh. Unclutter your mind.

Finally, you can greatly increase the quality of your intuitive decisions if you include certain
elements of the analytical approach. In particular, try to follow the procedure of the rational
analysis first. As much as you can, capture on paper the ideas on the main options and the
criteria for evaluating your choices. Write down the key facts and factors you need to keep
in mind.

Following this procedure is an effective way to feed your subconscious mind with all the
relevant data it needs. You will help yourself even more if you put all those notes together
on paper as a mind map. By having all the important points written in one place you will
also uncluttered your mind. At that stage you are much more ready to listen to your inner
voice.
Enhance your brain power with mind mapping
techniques
Mind mapping is a powerful technique for thinking on paper. It can help you greatly in such
tasks as

• goal setting (goal mind mapping)

• project planning
• organizing information for decision making
• studying new subjects or preparing for an exam
• preparing an oral presentation or writing an article or report
• note taking
• brainstorming

and many other “think on paper” types of situations.

Special role in the development and popularization of mind mapping techniques for
unleashing mind powers belongs to Tony Buzan, who is one of the leading authorities on
learning techniques.

The rationale for the use of mind maps or concept maps comes from a deeper
understanding of how the brain works with information. Unlike a traditional computer, your
brain does not process or organize information in linear sequences. Instead it naturally
operates with networks of associations between various ideas. If you present information as
a visual network, rather than a linear list, you will greatly enhance you mind powers to
digest that information. You will also stimulate synergy of the left and right sides of your
brain.

To create a concept map you can proceed in the following way. Take a sheet of paper and
put in the middle the central concept of your topic of focus. For example, in the case of goal
setting it can be the overall direction of your goals. Ideally, represent that concept as a
combination of words and an image. Then, starting from that central concept, draw lines to
the sides to represent the main related sub categories for your mind map topic. Take one
main keyword that you associate with each sub topic and print it in capitals over one of
those lines. When you are done with those sub categories, continue the process of
branching out lower level sub concepts. Draw lines from the end of each line from the
previous stage and, as before, mark those lines with the main keywords that distinguish
those concepts.

One variation of the technique is to put sub concepts as a network of bubbles connected
with lines. The keywords are placed inside the bubbles rather than on the lines.

You can enhance the visual power of your mind maps by putting images near some of the
concepts. You can also benefit from using colors for better grouping of the related sub
concepts.

In contrast to a linear list of text, a graphic concept map clearly represents relative
importance of different sub concepts (by how far they are from the center) as well as how
much they are related to each other (by their proximity on paper). Mind map is also easier
to extend than a continuous text. When you need to add a new concept, just find some
space to branch out a new line.

While such visual exercise can be done on paper, there are also a few graphic mind
mapping software tools that could streamline the process. Mind mapping software programs
greatly simplify visual map creation as well as management, especially when you need to
modify, store, and organize your mind maps on a regular basis.

How to use a decision matrix to streamline

your decision making process

Decision matrix is one of the simplest decision making techniques. You identify the key
elements of your decision making situation. You assign each such element a special number
(score). You then put those numbers into a special table and use a simple calculation to tell
you which choice is the best.

This allows you to process a complex decision on paper, one byte at a time, without choking
your mind with too many details at the same time. A decision making matrix also makes it
easier for you to comprehend the bigger picture of your situation.

To build a decision matrix you first need to decompose your decision making context into its
basic elements, its building blocks. There are two main types of such building blocks. The
first type is your options oralternatives from which you are choosing. Write those down.
You may want to extend your options further by taking another sheet of paper and going
through a brainstorming exercise.

The second type of decision elements is the selection criteria you can use for judging
your options. For example, various kinds of costs or losses, as well as benefits (in terms of
money, time savings, health, fun, and so on). Think carefully about those and list all of
them on paper. Look at them again. Can you make them more clear and specific? Are you
missing any other relevant factors?

Now you can make the first step in converting your decision context into numbers. In
particular, based on your feeling of the relative importance of different factors, assign each
judgment criterion (selection factor) some weight of importance. Just pick some numerical
scale, let’s say 1 to 5. Then use that scale for weighing the importance of each criterion.
The more important a given factor feels to you, the higher number you give it, within your
chosen range.

Next use your lists to start a weighted decision matrix table. The rows and columns of the
table correspond to your judgment criteria and options/alternatives, respectively. The first
column lists all selection criteria. The second column lists the importance weights of the
corresponding criteria. Then each additional column will describe your alternatives. Put the
names of the alternatives across the top of the weighted matrix as column headings.

Score your alternatives. Again choose some range/scale, like 0 to 5, or 0 to 100. The
roughest scoring system could be –1, 0, 1 (“positive impact”, “negative impact”, and “does
not matter”). Now go alternative by alternative (columns), and then criterion by criterion
(rows), and put some score at each table cell. The score should reflect your best judgment,
based on your feelings and knowledge, of the benefits of a given alternative in terms of a
given selection criterion.

Now based on all those numbers you can calculate the total score(overall desirability) of
each alternative in the weighted decision making matrix. For each alternative (column) in
the table, multiply all scores by the corresponding weights of importance (from the second
left column), and then sum those weighted scores together. This one number will be the
total score/desirability of a given alternative. Put such numbers in an extra row at the
bottom of the table.
Finally, the alternative that has the highest total score is your decision matrix’s conclusion
on what is your best choice.

Review of Decision-Making Skills*

Skill Explanation Examples of Use

Frame a decision in The deliberate use of
several ways to different ways of phrasing a provide low-cost health care to
consider different decision that needs to be
sorts of alternatives made
Coming up with several
Generate
possible ways to satisfy the care costs down, 2) add basic
alternatives
goals of the decision
Evaluate the Thinking through likely and
consequences of unlikely results of different
various alternatives alternative solutions
Hindsight analysis is the
Recognize the bias in reevaluation of a decision
hindsight analysis after its consequences are
known
A procedure for listing
Use a decision- alternatives and important
making worksheet considerations and then
calculating a decision
Avoid the Entrapment occurs when a
Changing the wording in a
decision, such as "How can we
everyone?" to "How can we
reduce the cost of quality health
care?"
Two possible alternatives are: 1)
provide incentives to keep health
medical information to high
school curricula
The incentive system for health
care might reduce the quality of
care. Giving everyone better
health education could prevent
some illness.
After a parolee kills someone,
many people want to fire the
parole board. CT recognizes that
the decision may have been
reasonable at the time it was
made, regardless of poor
outcome.
In deciding what to do about a
revolution, the leaders could list
possible actions, analyze and
weigh them, and then calculate a
decision.
Shana decides to stick with her
 boyfriend who treats her badly
course of action requires
because she has already
entrapment bias additional investments
invested several years of time
beyond those already made.
and energy in the relationship.
There is a pervasive bias to
Make a conscious effort to find
seek information that
information that would not
Seek disconfirming confirms what we believe to
support the dicision to have
evidence be true, and to ignore or
children when you are inclined to
minimize evidence to the
have children.
contrary.
Be aware of the We generate alternatives
Seek a variety of input when
effects of memory on and decisions that we can
deciding which college to attend.
decisions easily recall.

*Summarized from Halpern, Thinking Critically About Critical

Thinking, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996.

Build coping skills to withstand life's

challenges
Your coping skills are your ability to handle life's challenges in the most effective ways,
maximizing your chances of success or survival, and minimizing the damages and other
negative consequences. There is a virtually unlimited spectrum of difficult, or even
potentially devastating, situations that life could hit you with, sooner or later. It may be a
serious illness or chronic pain, an abusive relationship, divorce, big financial loss, burnout,
business or career failure, a child with ADHD or autism, and so on. It could be a one time
blow, like a loss of loved one, or it could be something that stays a big challenge for many
years, even for life, without giving you much of break.

Will you be lost and destroyed under stress or will you have strong enough coping skills to
stay in control and do the best that can be done? Will you have the resiliency to come out
stronger than you ever were?

While some of the coping skills and strategies (or rather tactics) are specific to the type of
challenges you are facing, the most important of those skills are fairly universal. Your ability
to cope well and stay in control depends most on your strengths in the following two areas:

• your actions,
 • your emotions.

Fortunately, there are certain skills and coping strategies you can build or improve that
could make you much stronger in each of those areas.

Your actions
Nearly in every challenging situation there is a number of specific actions you could do to
reach a successful resolution or to ease the pain and minimize damages. Your effectiveness
in that will mainly be determined by your thinking skills and abilities. For example, if there
is no reasonable alternative in sight then you need to unlock your creativity to think laterally
and brainstorm some options. If there are too many options and difficult trade-offs then you
need your judgment and your decision making skills to select the best course of action.
Finally, you most likely have only limited time and resources to realize that course. Hence
you depend on good planning and time management skills to develop and execute a good
plan.

Maybe you were content with your level of such thinking and coping skills in quiet times.
But now there is a complication. When faced with outstanding challenges you are often in
situations of high emotional arousal, under stress. And, as you may have already realized,
high emotional arousal can significantly distort our thinking, and very often not to our
advantage. How do you deal with that?

A good line of defense is to learn and use more systematic thinking strategies. Think on
paper, as much as possible. Learn to think on paper ("paper" could be a text file on your
computer). Instead of agonizing or letting your mind race, take a deep breath and jot down
your main thoughts. Brainstorm on paper. Follow a sequence of systematic decision making
steps, on paper. Go as far as you can with that (even if your switch to pure intuition in the
end). The more you practice that, the more robust and uncluttered your thinking will be.

Finally, for situations when you need to make quick decisions on the fly, your intuition is
probably your best guide, if you learn to tell apart its voice from the noises of the stressful
moments (You can strengthen this ability in the course of working on your emotional
intelligence skills).
Your emotions

Understanding how to adequately handle your emotions, your emotional intelligence, is an

absolutely critical aspect of coping skills. Emotions are essentially messages from your inner
brain to your consciousness. Those messages use a different language than your thoughts,
the language of physical sensations in your body. That language is more powerful, direct,
and efficient than thoughts in communicating certain types of information that are critical
for your survival.

Your emotions can carry valuable clues for finding solutions and navigating through the
most difficult problems you may face, if you learn to read them properly. However, like any
concentrated power, emotions can turn highly destructive if mishandled.

There are two main ways how your emotions can work as destructive power against you.

First, they can cloud or totally block your thinking, decision making, and creative abilities.
Those abilities that you may need most to resolve the threatening situation. They can
paralyze your actions. Instead of being keenly aware of your emotions of the moment and
accepting them as nothing more as messengers you could fall into the trap of letting them
overwhelm you and take full control of your thoughts and actions.

The second destructive force, which is a longer-term effect, comes from emotions that were
left unresolved, from the past. Those emotions pile up with time, like unhandled mail,
somewhere in the background, underneath your mind. They become toxic waste that keeps
draining your energy, narrows your thinking, makes you apathic or drives you to self-
destruction. That emotional baggage can hold you back in life and take a heavy toll on your
health.

How do you prevent your emotions from turning into your enemy? One of the main
strategies is to work on developing your emotional intelligence. Your level of emotional
intelligence is not something you are just born with. You can systematically build it, but it
takes some time and work.

The first necessary step on that path is gaining a good knowledge base on that topic, mainly
through reading. In the process, you can use your growing base for identifying and critically
reassessing your beliefs about emotions and your relationship with them. There is much
more to it than may seem on the surface.
Recommended reading for developing coping
skills
Here is our very selective picks for what would be some of the most insightful and practical
books that can help you strengthen your ability to cope with life’s challenges. They can also
help you move faster to success in any area.

Survivor Personality by Al Siebert

A very good starting point and overall map for developing coping skills and resiliency. Dr. Al
Siebert, a psychologist, has devoted over 40 years of his life to studying survivors, people
who were able to live through and rise from life situations where most perish or fail, from
death camps and incurable illnesses to a wide range of other scenarios of devastating
change. It appears that, beneath the surface, those people often share a number of key
traits in their thinking and approaches to life. Surprisingly, many of those traits are not
quite what you would expect from common stereotypes of survivors. The insights of this
book can drastically change how you go about challenges in your life.

Raising Your Emotional Intelligence: A Practical Guide by Jeanne S. Segal

In coping with change or other life’s challenges, your emotions can be your best friend or
your worst enemy. They can navigate you through the darkness and give you critical clues
for problem resolution, but they also have the power to override and block your thinking
and paralyze whatever other coping skills and strategies you may have, depending on your
level of emotional intelligence. This book is a good starting point and base for building
strengths on the emotional components of the coping skills.
Time log techniques
Time tracking with a time log is much more than a boring exercise in book keeping. If you
approach it right, it will become a very effective time management learning tool. A few
minutes of writing and analyzing your time and activity logs will eliminate many hours of
wasted time.

Embrace the reality of your personal time

Unless this has already happen to you before, your time log is more than likely to surprise
you. You will see how much time is wasted in many unexpected ways. Often it appears that
the busier you feel the more time is wasted.

Another important discovery is how much time things really take. One of the most common
problems in personal time management isunderestimating the time needed for each
specific activity. First this is one of the reasons why planning and scheduling do not seem
work well for some people. If you always expect much more than you can fit in your time,
than writing plans and to do lists just gets you more stressed.

Get a realistic picture of your time and you will feel much more in control. In fact, you will
move much faster with less stress.

Preparing and writing your time log

You don't need to keep writing a time log permanently. It is sufficient to do it for 3-7 days,
and repeat this procedure time after time. Yet, when you write a time log, make sure you
don't miss any even minor activity. Don't let your time wasters to hide there. So that not to
waste much time on writing time tracking records, take a little preparation step. Take a
sheet of paper and divide it into columns named like

• Time
• Activities
• Scheduled
• Interrupted
• Urgent
• People (involved)
Then continue with activities you would normally do that day. On the way, update your time
log. Do it either every time you switch to new activity or at some short time intervals, like
10-20 minutes. Add entries to your "Time" and "Activities" column, and try to put marks like
"Yes" or "No" in the "Scheduled", "Interrupted", and "Urgent" columns. Where relevant,
make short notes on what people you spend time with too.

What does your time log tell you?

When you have your time log written, you can move to the most important part, the
analysis. Review your records and try to get answers to the following questions.

• What percentage of your time is spent in each of different areas of your life? How is
it divided between Work, Business, Family, Recreational, Spiritual, Health?
• What percentage of your activities are important?
• Are urgent?
• What people you spend more time with?
• What percentage of your activities go as planned?
• What are main interruptions?

Then think of possible adjustments and action steps. For example:

• Are there any activities you can cut back on?

• Is there anything you can delegate or simplify?
• Can you save time by grouping related tasks, like shopping?

It will get you over the psychological barrier

Have you ever tried to convince anyone to change their view of him- or herself? Was it
easy? We often feel resistance to external judgments of our personality or habits. It is much
easier to accept a change if we discover things for ourselves, if the judgment is our own.

Something similar happens with time spending habits. When you discover how you really
spend your time, and do it yourself from your own time log, you will feel much more
comfortable when changing your time management attitudes and habits.
Advantages of a personal digital assistant
( PDA )
A personal digital assistant ( PDA ) allows you to efficiently access, organize, collect, store,
and process various kinds of information, and work with it on the run. It is small in size, like
a pocket calculator or a pocket address book. Being a hand-held electronic device, it is
designed to fit your palm as easily as your pocket. Unlike an ordinary computer, it is
always with you.

Yet, a handheld PDA is much smarter than most pocket electronic devices and time
management tools. It is a computer with a powerful processor and quite a large chunk of
memory, like 8-128 Mb. A PDA allows you to run any of thousands of various kinds of
software applications currently available for it.

You can easily communicate with a PDA via its oversized interactive screen area, its
special pen (the stylus) for touching that screen, and support of a few extra buttons at its
bottom. A PDA often can recognize your hand writing.

Basic functionality of a PDA is to store and retrieve phone numbers andaddresses,

maintain a to do list and a calendar. It is also a memo pad for taking notes at meetings, as
well as for capturing ideas, observations, and personal comments.

There are two main features that put a hand-held PDA much above a basic personal
organizer. One is its ability to be connected and communicate with many other electronic
devices, like a PC or digital camera. The other is the extensive abilities of the pda software.
Together with the third, the "always with you" feature, all this combines into a powerful and
versatile personal assistant.

So, the first important point is that you can connect a PDA to other electronic devices,
though sometimes it may require additional PDA accessories. That allows you to work with a
larger variety of data, much beyond of what you can just type in into a basic personal
organizer. In particular, many PDAs can be connected to your PC for a data or file
exchange. You can add the information you've collected with a PDA to some central
database or to a report that you do on your PC. You can also get more information into your
PDA from your PC, for example, from internet downloads (e-books or newspaper files) or
other files. Another common situation is to get into your PDA images from your digital
camera.

It is also important that two PDAs can talk directly to each other via infrared signals
("beaming"), which allows an easy exchange of information, for example, exchange of
business cards, without typing anything in. This is particularly convenient when working in
a team. For example, if one of the team members has collected certain important data and
made updates for himself or herself, those updates can be distributed among all team
members via beaming. This is one of the reasons why many business owners buy PDAs for
their employees.

As for PDA software applications, they include word processing, spreadsheets, games,
money management, weight or fitness monitoring, electronic book reading programs,
street map PDA software, bible software, a Power Point presenter and many more. Some
for general users, some for more specialized professional groups, like car salespeople, real
estate agents, medical doctors, or lawyers. Some PDAs allow e-mail and internet
access, while on many others you can prepare e-mails on a PDA but send them later, when
you connect to your PC. Some of that software may already be installed on your PDA when
you by it. Often you need to buy or download it from the internet, sometimes for free.

Note that, in combination, all those possibilities of exchanging information and keeping
electronic files and software on your PDAgreatly reduce the amount of paper (document
and reference printouts, various notes) you need to shuffle and carry around.

What about security concerns? With a PDA you can do a regular backup of your PDA held
data onto your PC. So, security-wise, a PDA still beats paper systems.
Pda comparison tips: Choosing the best pda
for you
Before you move on to pda comparison charts and start reading pda reviews, it is important
that you prepare yourself first.

Start by clarifying your personal needs and getting the overall picture of various pda
features and their relevance for you. Without such a picture you may be misled by some
pda comparison charts that are limited to only most obvious, but often not most relevant,
pda characteristics, or that only emphasize the strongest features of the specific handheld
computer brand they are promoting.

Note that a simple pda rating by price is not a good strategy in finding the best pda. The
most expensive pda may actually appear the worst for your personal needs. You may be
paying a lot for features that you don't use, or, even worse, for features that only make
your every day pda use more complicated and less convenient.

First, think about, or even write down, your different expectations for how a pda could help
you in your every day activities. Prioritize. Which of those expected benefits are most
important for you and you are most likely to use in practice? For example:

• Do you want to have an effective personal organizer for your appointments, plans,
and contacts?
• Do you also want to run certain software relevant for your business? (Like a
database of real estate or customer information)
• Do you want to minimize distractions or would rather turn your pda into a portable
entertainment center?
• Do you need to check your email from a pda? Or you come by your desktop or laptop
computer often enough to do it more conveniently from there? The same question
for pda internet browsing? (Note that pda internet browsing convenience is relatively
far from that on an ordinary computer, due to much smaller screen)
• Or maybe you just like the feeling of having all the newest technology advances in
your hand held computer, no matter that you use them only occasionally, if ever?

Have you ever used any hand held computer before? If yes, what can you learn from that
experience? What features worked best for you? If this is your first pda, it is wise to go
more conservatively and start from a more basic model. If needed you can always move to
more advanced models later, as you learn and as you clarify your specific needs and tastes
from experience.

Need wireless connectivity?

If you want to check emails, browse the internet, or connect to remote computers from your
pda, you need a wireless enabled piece. The main kinds of options are BlueTooth, wireless
ethernet (Wi-Fi), and a cellular phone type (like GSM or PCD).

BlueTooth is the simplest and most short range option: you can connect to another
computer in the same room or to a BlueTooth enabled cell phone, and then connect to the
internet via those devices.

Wireless ethernet is still short range (within 300 feet or less) and allows you to connect to
only non-mobile local network or computer, not to a cell phone. Wireless ethernet also
consumes more battery power.

Finally, there is also a cell phone type wireless connection (like GSM or PCS). The type of
wireless connection is included in most pda comparison tables or charts.

Note that there are also pdas that are integrated with cell phones. How convenient is such a
practice depends much on your personal situation.

Storage
Pda memory size is another commonly used parameter in pda comparison. Most of the
currently available Palm OS handheld computers have more than enough storage for basic
organizing purposes, like appointments, to do lists, and contact information, and for at least
a limited set of additional helpful software. You will need more storage if you plan to use
memory demanding software or large databases.

In some cases, like when dealing with many mp3 files, it may be more practical to use a
removable memory card (like memory stick or SD card). Check whether the pda you are
about to buy has a removable memory card slot (this is also typically mentioned in pda
comparison tables).
Display quality
While pda comparison tables typically focus on if the display is color or monochrome, it is
often more important how readable the display is, and not only under normal lighting
conditions, but also in sun light and in the dark.

For pda comparison purposes, another important characteristic of the display is its
resolution. Higher resolution displays, such as those on Sony Clie pdas, allow more
information to be shown at a time, as well as give higher quality images.

Weight, thickness, and feel

Also think about where are you most likely to carry your handheld. Always in your bag or
briefcase, or rather in your pocket? Most likely, not any pda will easily fit in your pocket.
And the heavier and larger the device, the less likely you are to take it with you.

On the other hand, it is also important how your handheld feels in your hand. It may appear
that the pda is too thin for your hand to hold it comfortably. Have a look and try!
Prioritizing effectively
Prioritizing skills are your ability to see what tasks are more important at each moment and
give those tasks more of your attention, energy, and time. You focus on what is important
at the expense of lower value activities.

C. Ray Johnson, in one of the final chapters of his book CEO Logic : How to Think and Act
Like a Chief Executive, summarizes: "Prioritizing is the answer to time management
problems - not computers, efficiency experts, or matrix scheduling. You do not need to do
work faster or to eliminate gaps in productivity to make better use of your time. You need
to spend more time on the right things..."

We all have many things to do, and we never have time and
energy to do them all. We don't have time and resources to do
them equally well either. Many things will be left undone, no
matter how hard you try. Prioritizing is a way to solve that
frustrating problem.

One key reason why prioritizing works, and works well, is the
80/20 Rule. The 80/20 Rule states that 80 percent of our typical activities contribute less
than 20 percent to the value of our work.

So, if you do only the most important 20 percent of your tasks you still get most of the
value. Then, if you focus most of your efforts on those top value activities, you achieve
much more than before, or you will have more time to spend with your family.

Prioritizing is about making choices of what to do and what not to do. To prioritize
effectively you need to be able to recognize what is important, as well as to see the
difference between urgent and important.

The important, or high priority, tasks are the tasks that help us achieve our long-term goals
or can have other meaningful and significant long-term consequences.

At first glance, many of the tasks we face during a day seem equally urgent and important.
Yet, if you take a closer look, you will see that many of the urgent activities we are involved
are not really important in the long run. At the same time, things that are most important
for us, like improving ourselves and our skills, getting a better education, spending time
with family, often are not urgent.

With good prioritizing skills, you finish as soon as possible all the important urgent tasks,
the ones that would get you into a crisis or trouble otherwise. Then, you focus your
attention and try to give more and more time to those most important, but not urgent
tasks, the ones that are most rewarding in the long run.

Prioritizing principles can be applied to both planned and unplanned activities.

For planned activities, like the ones included in your to do list, you can mark each of your
tasks with "A", "B", or "C", depending on its importance. The "B" tasks should be done only
after you are finished with all the most important "A" tasks, the ones that just must be
done. If you have time after you are finished with the "B" tasks, you can move on to the "C"
ones.

When you set priorities in to do lists, also keep asking yourself if any of your tasks can be
eliminated or delegated.

When you prioritize unplanned activities, you often need to make quick decisions, and you
don't have time to analyze the situation in full. It is best just to keep in mind your goals and
rely on your instincts. Your effectiveness in such situations depends very much on the
clarity of your goals.

Effective delegation skill

Delegation skill is the ability to effectively assign task responsibility and authority to others.
Or, in other words, delegation skill is your ability to get things done by using work and time
of other people.

Effective delegation is a critical survival skill for managers and supervisors, and this is
what many delegation training resources are about. Yet, what is less often emphasized is
that understanding delegation skill and knowing how to use it right is an
important personal time management skill. No matter if you have subordinates or
bosses, if it is at work or at home.
Do you have to do everything yourself?
The delegation process normally starts from asking yourself if you are the right person to do
the task, and then who is the right person for this task. A common trap here is thinking
like "If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself". Such thinking is a sure
way to stay overloaded with the same kind of work. It is a severe limit on how far you can
go and how much you can grow in your job, business, or personal life.

Who should do it then?

The first important component of the delegation skill is choosing the right person to
delegate the task to (delegatee).

You can use the following simple strategies. First, if you have subordinates, can any of them
do the task at lower cost than you? If you are concerned with that they do it worse than
you, can they do it at least 80 percent as good as you would, or could you train them to do
it so?

If the task requires making decisions you are not authorized to make, when it is very right
to delegate it to your boss.

Find a win-win deal

Outside the standard boss-subordinate situation, a key component of the delegation skill is
the ability to find a win-win deal, and still delegate the task to someone.

A common win-win situation is when delegating the task saves your time and gives a
valuable learning experience, skill training, or an interesting opportunity for the delegatee.

One more situation is task or service exchange, when someone does a task for you in
exchange for that you do another task for her/him. Finally, it may be more effective just to
buy some particular service from outside, or delegate the task to technologies, for example,
to some special software.

You still have responsibilities

For your delegation skill to work, make sure that you will be able to monitor the progress of
task execution and know if the task is actually completed. When you delegate, normally you
are still responsible for that the task is completed. Avoid delegation when you are
unable to monitor the completion status.
Yet, delegate the whole task
What you live to the delegatee is the responsibility for how the task is executed, the
method of execution. When you do this, for the delegation to be effective it is important
that you delegate the whole task. You need to effectively and clearly communicate to the
delegatee what outcome is expected and what requirement are for the task results.

This is very important for the delegatee's motivation and performance, as well as for your
satisfaction with the task results.

Team work and team building essentials

Team building skills are critical for your effectiveness as a manager or entrepreneur. And
even if you are not in a management or leadership role yet, better understanding of team
work can make you a more effective employee and give you an extra edge in your corporate
office.

A team building success is when your team can accomplish something much bigger and
work more effectively than a group of the same individuals working on their own. You have
a strong synergy of individual contributions. But there are two critical factors in building a
high performance team.

The first factor in team effectiveness is the diversity of skills and personalities. When people
use their strengths in full, but can compensate for each other's weaknesses. When different
personality types balance and complement each other.

The other critical element of team work success is that all the team efforts are directed
towards the same clear goals, the team goals. This relies heavily on good communication in
the team and the harmony in member relationships.

In real life, team work success rarely happens by itself, without focused team building
efforts and activities. There is simply too much space for problems. For example, different
personalities, instead of complementing and balancing each other, may build up conflicts. Or
even worse, some people with similar personalities may start fighting for authority and
dominance in certain areas of expertise. Even if the team goals are clear and accepted by
everyone, there may be no team commitment to the group goals or no consensus on the
means of achieving those goals: individuals in the team just follow their personal opinions
and move in conflicting directions. There may be a lack of trust and openness that blocks
the critical communication and leads to loss of coordination in the individual efforts. And on
and on. This is why every team needs a good leader who is able to deal with all such team
work issues.

Here are some additional team building ideas, techniques, and tips you can try when
managing teams in your situation.

• Make sure that the team goals are totally clear and completely understood and
accepted by each team member.
• Make sure there is complete clarity in who is responsible for what and avoid
overlapping authority. For example, if there is a risk that two team members will be
competing for control in certain area, try to divide that area into two distinct parts
and give each more complete control in one of those parts, according to those
individual's strengths and personal inclinations.
• Build trust with your team members by spending one-on-one time in an atmosphere
of honesty and openness. Be loyal to your employees, if you expect the same.
• Allow your office team members build trust and openness between each other in
team building activities and events. Give them some opportunities of extra social
time with each other in an atmosphere that encourages open communication. For
example in a group lunch on Friday. Though be careful with those corporate team
building activities or events in which socializing competes too much with someone's
family time.
• For issues that rely heavily on the team consensus and commitment, try to involve
the whole team in the decision making process. For example, via group goal setting
or group sessions with collective discussions of possible decision options or solution
ideas. What you want to achieve here is that each team member feels his or her
ownership in the final decision, solution, or idea. And the more he or she feels this
way, the more likely he or she is to agree with and commit to the decided line of
action, the more you build team commitment to the goals and decisions.
• When managing teams, make sure there are no blocked lines of communications and
you and your people are kept fully informed.
 Even when your team is spread over different locations, you can still maintain
effective team communication. Just do your meetings online and slash your travel
costs. Click here for a free test drive.

• Be careful with interpersonal issues. Recognize them early and deal with them in full.
• Don't miss opportunities to empower your employees. Say thank you or show
appreciation of an individual team player's work.
• Don't limit yourself to negative feedback. Be fare. Whenever there is an opportunity,
give positive feedback as well.

Finally, though team work and team building can offer many challenges, the pay off from a
high performance team is well worth it.