CSI's Seth Davies speaks today at the August 2010 HR Association of Palm Beach County Dinner Event

Seth Davies, Managing Partner of Client Services for Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), is scheduld to speak today at the August 2010 HR Palm Beach County Dinner Event in Palm Beach, Florida. The topic of Seth's presentation is "Aligning Key Initiatives in a Challenging Economy"

Seth is a popular and energetic public speaker. He offers several public accountability workshops, leadership workshops, a scorecard workshops each year. Visit the CSI website at www.competitive-solutions.net for more information on upcoming workshops, events and webinars.

CSI's consultants have been chosen to speak at many conferences around North America in 2010. You can see the calendar of upcoming speaking engagements and download selected slides shows at www.competitive-solutions.net.

The SHRM 2010 Conference feedback is in!

CSI's Shane Yount Delivered a MEGA session presentation on Legacy Leadership and recieves very high marks!

Mr. Yount gave a presentation on his latest book "Leaving Your Leadership Legacy: A Focus on Authenticity, Adaptability, and Sustainability." Shane's presentation discussed redefining personal leadership development and promised a coveted experience for any leader at any level desiring to leave a positive and lasting imprint upon their organizations, and more importantly their people. The session was titled "The Trilogies of Legacy Leadership: Moving from the 3Ps to the 3Cs."

In a letter, Shane received from Michelle Dolieslager, Program Manager - Conference Programming, she provided seven full pages of comments and quotes from the participants. With over 600 participant feedback forms collected, Shane scored very high marks on a scale of one to five, five being the highest.

On "Quality of information presented" Shane scored a 4.81, while the average speaker scored a 4.35. On "Applicability to my professional development" Shane scored a 4.63, while the average score for all SHRM speakers was a 4.30.

Some of the participant comments included the following:

"By far the best presentation and speaker I've seen."

"Made me realize how much I take on and that should be owned and executed by my staff."

"...gave us a practical approach for addressing the issues."

"Shane was totally awesome - presentation was completely relevant to today's management - totally hit home!"

"Humorous and Enjoyable! Thank you for communicating complex thoughts in simple terms"

"Wow! Truly transformational! I am most anxious to return to work with the new philosophy."

"Shane's energy and examples were great! I'm very excited to read his book."

"Great content, useful info, relevant to me."

"...useful, made me think, and validated my leadership/accountability approach."

"Compelling information delivered in a humorous presentation that definitely connected with me. Great!"

"Excellent! I will really use this to improve my business."

"..lots of useful information to take with me and put into action."

"Wow! Excellent session! Value added and can immediately begin to implement with my organization."

"Wish there was more time for this session."

"Please repeat this session next year!"

Less Time + More Meaning = Better Meetings

Less Time + More Meaning = Better Meetings
When was the last time you left a meeting and thought to yourself "Wow! That was a great meeting?" Let's assume that this moment has happened for you at least once in your career. What made that particular meeting so great? Was it just luck? Whatever made that meeting so great – did you attempt to replicate it so all of your other meetings turn out so well?

So, what makes for a great meeting and how can you ensure that all your meetings are great? For me it’s simple. The best meetings are the ones that are quick, meaningful and result in change or action following the meeting.

Meaningful, effective meetings should always include the following:
Structure - A known structure allows the participants to come prepared and ready to contribute.

Ground Rules - With some basic rules for how to hold a meeting attendees can come ready to maintain the proper focus on the meeting topic.

People - It's important to have the right people in the meeting. If someone is unable to attend, they should send a delegate to the meeting to represent them and their department, division, or work area.

Outcomes - With a focus on defined, specific outcomes you’ll provide meaning to the meeting.

Actions - In order to accomplish the desired outcomes, participants will need to have list of actionable items moving forward. Let’s face it, if all the group does is sit around and talk about the issues, has anything really been accomplished? The most meaningful item coming out of any meeting is a list of what is to be done, which is recorded, distributed, and referenced at the next meeting.

Important elements for more meaningful meetings include:
An Agenda. Knowing the order and the list of activities to take place brings a structure and stability to the discussion.

Meeting Roles. Having pre-defined roles for participants keeps the group more engaged. Three recommended meeting roles are as follows:
1. The Facilitator directs the meeting and helps keep the pace flowing.
2. The Action Taker keeps a written record of the meeting and any resulting actions moving forward.
3. The Participants. The Meeting Participants are responsible for taking part, adding information, and following-up on actions.

The Action Register. An Action Register is a tool used to document actions taken by the participants at the meeting. This powerful tool increases accountability by recording actions, denoting the person responsible for those actions, and the date they will have their action completed.

A Scorecard. A Business Scorecard allows participants to know and track their progress. Whether the scorecard is for a specific project, department, or the entire company the information is important for the group to understand where they need to focus their corrective actions and current efforts.

A Time Limit. A meeting time limit will allow participants to focus on the topic, while at the same time provide incentive to make the time meaningful. Teams may require regular, shorter meetings to accomplish the stated purpose or outcome. You can’t always solve all issues or complete all your tasks in one long-running, bloated meeting.

By implementing more structure, introducing meeting roles, and having established outcomes with action items you’ll be able to save time in meetings and increase the amount of time taking action outside of the meetings.

What else would you suggest doing to make meetings more meaningful?

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Learn strategies for holding meaningful meetings and more at our next public workshop.

Please contact CSI to learn how to develop sustainable, standard meeting processes.

Shane Yount selected to speak at the 20th Annual SHRM-Atlanta HR Conference

Shane Yount, Principal for Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), has been selected to speak at the 20th Annual SHRM-Atlanta HR Conference, October 18 - 19, 2010, at the Cobb Galleria Center in Atlanta, GA. The topic of Shane's presentation will be "Extreme Leadership Makeovers - Training to Drive Sustainable Business Processes."

CSI's Adam Spisak to speak at the 19th Annual Golden State SHRM Conference in New Jersey

Adam Spisak, Senior Consultant for Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), will speak at the 19th Annual Golden State Council-SHRM State Conference and Expo in New Jersey at the Ocean Place Resort & Spa in Long Branch. Adam will speak on Monday, November 1st from 1:45 pm to 2:45 pm. The topic of his session will be "Leadership GPS - Growth, Performance, Sustainment."

I'm speaking at National SHRM in San Deigo - 2010 SHRM

Here's the news about my opportunity to speak at the 2010 National SHRM Conference...

Shane Yount, Principal for Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), will speak at the Society for Human Resource Management's 62nd Annual Conference & Exposition in San Diego. Shane will speak on Tuesday, June 29th. His MEGA session begins at 10:45 AM with the topic of "The Trilogies of Legacy Leadership: Moving from the 3Ps to the 3Cs." He will be speaking in Room 6 CDEF.

Shane is a popular and energetic public speaker. He offers several public accountability workshops, leadership workshops, a scorecard workshops each year. Visit the CSI website at www.competitive-solutions.net for more information on upcoming workshops, events and webinars.

Shane works with several nationally-known, highly successful organizations, such as the US Army, Michelin Tire, Harley-Davidson, Revlon, Genentech, Boar's Head, and several others.

CSI's consultants have been chosen to speak at many conferences around North America in 2010 and 2011. You can see the calendar of upcoming speaking engagements and download selected slides shows at www.competitive-solutions.net.

CSI's John Pyecha to speak at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Annual Conference

John Pyecha, Principal for Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), will speak on Monday, June 7th at the BRIDGING THE GAPS: Society of Manufacturing Engineers Annual Conference in Nashville, TN. John's session will begin at 4:00 PM with the topic of "Scorecards: How to Educate, Facilitate and Motivate."

John is a popular and energetic public speaker. He offers several public accountability workshops, leadership workshops, a scorecard workshops each year. Visit the CSI website at www.competitive-solutions.net for more information on upcoming workshops, events and webinars.

John works with several nationally-known, highly successful organizations, such as the US Army, Michelin Tire, Harley-Davidson, Revlon, Genentech, Boar's Head, and several others.

CSI's consultants have been chosen to speak at many conferences around North America in 2010. You can see the calendar of upcoming speaking engagements and download selected slides shows at www.competitive-solutions.net.