Vicki Halsey - Hamster Revolution for Meetings. How to Meet Less and Get More Done

“Overwhelmed by meetings? Double your productivity with this fast, fun, and effective read.”

– Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Practical, powerful, and easy to apply!”

– Betsy Myers, Chief Operating Officer, Barack Obama Presidential Campaign

“Take control of meetings and get more done!”

– Jack Forestell, Vice President of Marketing and Analytics, Capital One Financial

“A must-read business book! Grow your productivity, network, and career with these bold, new meeting techniques.”

– Keith Ferrazzi, author of ’Never Eat Alone

“Loved it! Effective meetings and a ton of time saved. Brilliant!’

– Beth Behnke, Director, Human Resources, Venoco, Inc.

“Go green! Boost virtual meeting results and reduce your carbon footprint!”

– Gus Kellogg, Chief Executive Officer, Greenleaf Biofuels

“Real-world meeting ideas that reclaim time and increase your treasure.”

– Garry Ridge, CEO and President, WD-4 °Company

“Join the Hamster Revolution and unleash your strengths!”

– Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work

“Who can’t identify with Iris? Get meetings under control with these clear, intuitive, and easy-to-implement tools.”

– Kate Sohl, Senior Manager, Training and Communications, Information and Business Solutions, Cubist Pharmaceuticals

“Become a virtual meeting virtuoso!”

– Stewart Levine, Esq., author of Getting to Resolution and coauthor of Collaboration 2.0

“A very useful book for meeting in the information age!”

– Svend Hovmand, Chairman Emeritus, Crossville Inc.

“Relevant, easy-to-apply meeting ideas that will help you escape the hamster cage!”

– Shawn Snyder, Development Consultant, Avnet

“Read this book and revolutionize your meetings!”

– Mike Nation, Senior Vice President, Colorado State Bank and Trust

“Simple, elegant, and essential meeting tools. You’ll use them every day.”

– Kurt Gering, Senior Training Manager, GreatCall, Inc., creator of Jitterbug

“Fantastic! End meeting insanity and reclaim fifteen days a year.”

– Noah Blumenthal, author of Be the Hero: Three Powerful Ways to Overcome Challenges in Work and Life

“Loaded with clever ideas for powerful meetings.”

– Scott Wozniak, Leadership Coach and Consultant, Chick-fil-A

For Mom and Dad. Your amazing love, inspiration, insight, and sacrifice will shine forever in my heart.

For my precious Rick, Nick, and Jake and my transformative Blanchard family.

In memory of George. Thanks for your simple words of wisdom and never-ending laughter.

Forty-three percent.

That’s the amount of time professionals say they waste during meetings. It’s a stunning number when you consider that meetings consume a huge chunk of every business day.

Making the most of meeting time may be the greatest opportunity we have to get more done, be happier in our jobs, and free up more time. And given the challenges our world faces right now, meetings that identify and solve real problems would go a long way toward making things better. Yet ever since people began gathering together to get work done, the world has been plagued by meetings without clear agendas, meetings that stray off course, meetings with incomplete action items, and meetings without accountability and follow-through.

The Hamster Revolution for Meetings excites me because the authors not only provide sound advice on how to manage traditional, face-to-face meetings, they also show how much easier meetings can be with the help of technology: e-calendars, virtual meeting tools, PDAs, and more. Plus, it’s a fun story that gets to the point. You can read it cover-to-cover during a 90-minute plane ride.

If you’re like the average professional, you spend more than a quarter of your day in meetings. Assuming you want to be a great leader or team player, don’t you think it’s a good idea to have a strategy for making the most of every meeting you attend? There’s no question that this book will save you time – but it also just might take you, your company, and our world to a higher level.

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We were stuck.

Kim, our flight attendant, had just informed us that a violent thunderstorm was rapidly rolling in.

“If we get seated quickly, we’ll be able to take off a few minutes early and miss the bad weather,” she said.

Unfortunately, one final passenger was arriving at the last possible minute, spoiling the plan. Everyone was grumbling and straining to see who it was.

“Uh, welcome aboard!” said Kim, sounding confused. She was talking to someone, but from our vantage point, no one appeared to be there.

What was going on?

Kim turned to watch the invisible passenger trudge down the aisle. At the front of the plane, heads turned and people gasped.

“Did you see that?”

“Oh my!”

Straining to see, I leaned into the aisle to get a better look. Suddenly I was face-to-face with an attractive yet extremely frazzled female hamster. She was no more than two feet tall and wore a dark blue business suit.

My fellow passengers were stunned. The plane fell silent.

“Hi, I’m Iris,” she gasped. “I just ran all the way through the airport.”

A shocked-looking businessman across the aisle said, “You’re a…a...”

“Late, I know,” said Iris apologetically as she motioned to the empty seat next to me. “That’s mine.”