From Publishers Weekly
The business meeting—a necessary evil or a vital and invigorating component of running an organization? According to management consultant Lencioni (
The Five Temptations of a CEO), meetings should fit the latter description, but more often than not, he says, they don't. In this lackluster audio fable, Lencioni offers practical advice on how to revitalize your business by energizing your business meetings, but his pallid, passive prose would challenge the most skilled narrator, and Arthur is no exception. The voice Arthur lends Will, the young hero of this tale, resembles that of Sesame Street's Ernie on downers, and the various inflections he gives business owner Casey McDaniel and his management team don't make up for the characters' lack of character. Nevertheless, Lencioni's message comes across loud and clear—meetings should be interactive, not passive, and they should be structured (i.e., issues of immediate importance should be discussed in "weekly tactical" meetings, and issues that will fundamentally affect the business should be addressed in "monthly strategic" meetings). Although managers will find this advice worthwhile, they would gather just as much if they skipped the sluggish fable and listened to the last few tracks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From AudioFile
The author of THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM, Lencioni is an experienced West Coast business consultant with a good grasp of team functioning. In a slow-moving audio production, he uses a parable to frame his advice on how to get value from time spent in meetings. He says meetings are like movies in that they need conflict and resolution to hold people's attention. They also require seriousness of purpose, diligent preparation, and a persistent focus on stated goals. After the parable finally concludes, explicit advice is given about providing drama and structure, but it's not elaborated soon enough to offer the kind of pointed lesson most business listeners want. T.W. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
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edition.
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