Dando Advisors

10 Steps to Make Your Meetings Suck Less

May 27th, 2010 by Kirk Dando. 1 Comment »

 A couple of years ago I was talking to my friend John Day, who was complaining about how much time he was spending in meetings and how bad they sucked. He had to get to the office super early and stay super late just to get “real” work done. 

I asked John why he and his company were having so many meetings.  He said most of them were regularly scheduled meetings to share information and give and get updates.  I asked him the obvious question: “John, if these meetings are not a good use of time or suck so bad, why do you and everyone else keep going to them?”  He sheepishly said… “They were ‘mandatory’ and no one ever questions them?” 

I told him not to worry about it;  it is very normal for a successful, growth-hungry company to experience what I call “Fieldtrip Meetings,” where people show up to meetings and take “mental fieldtrips” until they’re over.  Then when the “fieldtrip” meeting is over, the “real” meetings (sidebar meetings) begin in the hallways and offices of everyone who was supposed… Read More >

Are Core Values Overrated?

May 13th, 2010 by Kirk Dando. 6 Comments »

I recently had the privilege of working with a company that is wildly successful by anyone’s standard. Even in this economy, it’s growing rapidly, has a culture that attracts the best talent, is winning award after award in its industry, and has a CEO who was named local business leader of the year. 

This company is clearly on its way up The Business Lifecycle™ (an approximation of how successful businesses scale and some of the problems — The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ — they encounter).

However, after meeting with several of the company’s key leaders and employees, it occurred to me that although they had some very clear short-term objectives and were driving the company toward iconic levels of short-term success, the core values, or what I call the  SOUL, and ultimately the long-term success, of the company was in danger of being compromised, due, ironically, to its hyper-growth.

When I say SOUL, I’m not talking about the “soul” that is drenched in marketing jargon and marched out to… Read More >