Networking in Face to Face presentations

You need to live and breathe networking. In just about every social interaction there are advantages to be had from effective networking practices. If you are presenting to an individual or to a group there are a number of important elements that you can use to your advantage at the time of connecting with your audience.

The rules to a successful presentation.

You as the presenter will need to be clear in your mind what the required outcome of your presentation is to be. What action do you want the attendees to be persuaded to take? Do you need to educate them or change their opinions or attitudes towards something? Work out how you plan to do this. Will you be using facts, figures, tables, graphics or a combination of these?

If it is your intention to use slides with graphics, charts and / or tables in your presentations, you should always make sure that these slides are easy to read. Specifically, make sure that the font size is not too small or that the table is not too cluttered. Also check that the colours you have decided on do not cause your material to disappear or bleed one colour into another, resulting in your slides being difficult to read.

If you are going to be educating your audience, you will need to show that you are a presenter who is qualified to talk on that specific subject. If you have relevant experience or qualifications, these should be advertised in your introductory slides to encourage your audience to accept your points as factual rather than as opinions. That you might be an expert on the subject does not mean that your presentation will go off unchallenged; as you will often find that there is someone in your audience who has attended your presentation simply to try and trip you up or to put across their own point of view. Sometimes they do this in an attempt to show off how bright they think they are. All they usually do is reveal that they are obtuse and ignorant. Not if, but when this happens to you, try to resist the natural human reaction of becoming defensive or resorting to your own attack on the offending person. Quite often someone else in the audience will spring to your defence and at other times you might have to gently remind the person that you respect that he or she has a viewpoint and that it would be really appreciated by all if they in turn would respect your right to having your own viewpoint too. The beauty of this statement is that it will usually persuade the person to restrict their challenges thereafter.

Where your presentation has been put forward to change people’s opinions or attitudes then you would welcome their participation and contributions in the debate as it would guide you as to what opinions they have that you need to address and hopefully change. With a bit of foresight you might have anticipated and prepared answers to many of these opinions when planning your presentation. 

There is nothing more frustrating to an audience than trying to figure out what a presenter is on about when a presenter launches into his presentation without first summarizing what he will be talking to them about. There is a saying that is most useful if you want to give better structure to your message which goes along the lines of “Tell them what you’re going to tell them about, then tell them, and finally tell them what you told them”.  In other words, start with an introduction, then elaborate in the body of the presentation and finish with its conclusion, and ensure that all three are related and relevant.  Read on!

What to include in the introduction of the presentation

In the introduction you should explain why the subject matter is important to the listener and why it would be to their benefit to stay awake and listen to what you have to say. In this section you will explain briefly what material you will be covering – this is kind of similar to an index in the front of a book – and should not take more than sixty seconds.

What to include in the body of the presentation

In the body of the presentation you will then expand on and highlight the main issues raised in your introduction as these relate to your key points under discussion. You should only concentrate on ideally three to a maximum of five key points in any presentation that you do give to make sure your audience gets your message and knows what they need to act on. The more key points you raise the more diluted and hence weaker your main message usually becomes. If your presentation is a sales pitch for new business, you should always present in such a manner, using words and statements that assume that you have already been awarded the business. You could say for example, “when we implement the program” as opposed to “if you decide to go with us” and “Once you own this system you will have…” versus “Should you choose our system you will have…”.  

Your confidence and positive attitude will rub off on your audience and if your presentation is a good one they will not want to disappoint you or themselves and will reward you with their order. Never underestimate the power of language in the sales environment either, because you are speaking to them as if they already own your product or service they will begin to think in those terms also. Also use words that do not frighten off the prospect. Use ‘authorize’ rather than ‘sign’. Use the word ‘invest’ instead of ‘cost’ or ‘pay’. There are many more examples that I’ll leave you to work out for yourself or to decide on.

Take into account your audiences ability to concentrate for no more than twenty minutes at a time. This means you might need to take a break or to create a slight diversion to refocus your audience every twenty minutes or so. If you give them all the information they need to make a decision in your presentation you will also need to make sure they heard it. If they didn’t concentrate, they may have missed part of your message and will then hesitate or procrastinate until they get that missing information.

Use your slides as a guide to your presentation. Don’t simply read your slides out loud to your audience – this is sure to put them to sleep and result in costing you your much anticipated and desired outcome. While many presenters say you must give handouts to your audience, I sometimes only give them out at the end of the presentation. This prevents your audience from reading ahead and shouting out your answers when you were actually hoping they would have discovered something for themselves. Depending on the type of participation you are looking for in the presentation it might also be counter productive to hand out the whole presentation. In this instance you might consider leaving out those slides that thwart your desired audience participation goals. Typically this refers to slides that contain answers to questions posed in the slides.

What to include in the conclusion of the presentation

At the conclusion of your presentation you will tell your audience what you’ve told them by recapping your key messages and explaining what you would expect their next step to be. What must they do next? Your conclusion would need to incite them to act on your recommendation and usually you would need to have created some emotion in order to get them to act. People seldom buy without having an emotional reason to acquire something. This is why many never achieve wealth as they part with their money for emotional reasons rather than financial ones. Confirm how you can be instrumental in helping your audience to achieve their new goals if it is your intention to be involved in the process, especially if this is a sales pitch. They need to be convinced that you are the right man or woman for the work you have recommended, especially if they are also attending presentations held by your competition. The benefits and advantages that you highlight to them because of them using you should be such that they will only think of you when it comes to making their decision.

Finish up politely by asking for any closing questions and thereafter thank your audience for their time and attentiveness.

Do not introduce any new points in the conclusion.

It is important not to present a standard presentation to clients from different industries who would use your products for slightly different purposes. You should adapt your presentation to accommodate the differences as these pertain to the industry that your client operates in. If you are going to provide examples of any nature, they should be examples from within the appropriate industry. If the examples are not relevant to the client then leave out the example all together. It adds a nice touch to the presentation if you can acquire your client’s company logo either from the internet or have it scanned from a compliment slip, letterhead or similar document. Many clients might e-mail their logo to you as these logos now seem to be stored electronically on most office computers today.

What does the decision maker want to know?

When presenting to a group, if you are not sure who the decision maker is, have one of your contacts point him or her out to you.  The decision maker is always the most important person in the room from a decision point of view. You would ignore this person to your own detriment. Address them using their name, but at all times show respect for them and the position of authority they hold in the company. Make sure your presentation addresses the points that the decision maker would have wanted and needed to hear about in order to feel more comfortable when making his decision. The type of questions he would ask and expect answers to, might include:

·        What are the benefits to me, or my company if we are to use your products or services?

·        What will it cost us?

o   Implementation costs?

o   Maintenance costs?

o   Exit costs?

·        What are the payment terms relating to the sale?

·        What kind of results could we expect if we go ahead with your recommendations?

·        How long would it take before we can expect to see or  be able to quantify results?

·        What guarantees or warranties are contained in the sale?

What do delegates expect?

Delegates expect to be impressed with you as a speaker, but more importantly with how your service or product can add value to their processes. They expect to be convinced by you that your product or service is the right match for their stated needs. Throughout the sales process they need you as their adviser to reassure them that they are making the correct decision by following your recommendations and by agreeing to deal with you. They want to be fully informed of the advantages and limitations of your recommendations, but most of all they want to feel that you have educated them about your product and services and that you did so in an entertaining yet professional manner.

Closing Words

You now have all the theory behind networking but you also know that I’ve told you that you have to put it into practice if it’s going to work for you. Have fun with it! Sure some people might think you’re a little mad but then I think that everyone needs to have a little madness to get through this hectic and stressful life so many of us lead. Why kill yourself when there is an easier way? The answers you might have been searching for lies here in your own two hands…  

Networking is all about Nett Giving. (Lars Lofstrand [2005])

How to be effective using E-mail

E-mail is becoming used more and more often to connect with others but unfortunately there are elements in our society who abused this medium. These abusers are referred to as spammers. This abuse makes it even more difficult for you to reach your prospects or clients even though you might have a great product or service which you genuinely believe will add value to their business or personal lives. I have made a habit of sending out a newsletter with something of interest to my client and prospect base on a monthly basis. What astounds me is that many of them do not even open the mail and hence do not read what I have sent them. Those with bad memories often don’t remember who I am and accuse me of spamming them despite having received several regular monthly newsletters with all my details on them. What I find terribly sad is that, to date this spamming accusation has only ever come from people who have approached me via one of my companies to purchase their goods and services. You can only guess at their embarrassment when I phone them to remind them of who I am and that my call is to confirm that their request or demand to be removed from my mailing list has been carried out which effectively also means that I’ve removed their name from the people I cared about (my clients and prospects list) and, unfortunately for them, also means that I’ve removed them as a potential supplier to my company!

I have a simple networking rule. If you deal with me, I will deal with you. If I put business your way, I expect you to give me a fair opportunity with the products and services I provide, should you need them. So, when I deal, I will always give preference to people who deal with me. That’s co-operative networking for mutual benefit.

I have learned that if you want to improve the chances of your e-mail being read, your subject line needs to attract the attention of the recipient. In other words, it needs to follow the same principles of the teaser concept we mentioned earlier.

Here are some subject-line teaser examples about networking that will assist you to design your own teasers around these themes:

If you want to network effectively don’t stay at home.

The five big secrets of networking for profits.

How to network more efficiently

He who can network gets lucky more often than he who cannot.

How to be at the right place at the right time more often using networking.

How to make people instantly like you.

The latest research on networking found that …

Banish bad luck using these effective networking skills.

If you are only wanting to keep in touch with contacts by telling them what you are up to, they are more likely to read something along the lines of “News just in…”, “The latest news from…” or “Guess what we have been up to …?” as opposed to some unconvincing comment in the subject line of your e-mail message.

If you are asking for action regarding a limited time offer you might broadcast “Act now to enjoy this limited time offer….” Or “Only 7 days to go before this opportunity is lost forever…”. Don’t do this with every e-mail that you send out or you will lose credibility.

Be Effective with Telephones and E-mail

How to make that telephone call turn into money.

Let us assume that you are intending to telephone someone you have met at a networking event to set up an appointment. If you are a bit like me and you really do not enjoy having to pick up the phone and cold call someone, this can be a tough task. We all want to be liked, and hence do not take rejection too well. In fact we begin to fear being rejected by prospects. However, it is a fear that you will have to conquer if you are to turn telephone calls into cash. Now don’t make a bunch of excuses when the designated telephone time arrives. You must embrace it and make it a habit but most of all, you should follow my simple tips and the task will get a little easier. Yes, the recipient of some of your polite, well intentioned calls may be having a bad day and he or she may take their frustrations out on you, but the telephone still remains one of the main connectors today and is still more effective than e-mail in setting up appointments. The telephone can pretty much guarantee faster and more personal interactivity than e-mail can when scheduling an appointment with a prospect. Imagine trying to set up an appointment with a stranger via e-mail?  You will probably be treated as a spammer, that is, someone who sends multiple e-mails out to no-one in particular.

I think the uncertainty of what you are going to say to your prospect and the uncertain responses you could get back from them often give rise to the fear. The good news is that there are two very simple things that you can do to help alleviate your fears. Many of us will have a photograph of a loved one on our desks at our offices. What you could do with this photograph is to set it up in the near vicinity of your phone so that you could pretend that you are speaking to this person whenever you are in fact calling a prospect. This simple little trick helps to settle your nerves when you make that telephone call. If you have a loved one but don’t have a photograph of them in your workspace perhaps you should arrange one. After all, we typically spend less time awake with our spouses than we do with our work colleagues. Your spouse or loved ones deserve to take pride of place by your phone and you deserve better success by having placed the photograph at that spot.

To ensure a pleasant vocal quality, I suggest that you should smile as you dial the prospects number or whenever you take a call from a prospect. This is especially important if it is your intention to secure appointments with them. You improve your chances of success by sounding pleasant and interesting. Try and be the type of someone that they might want to talk further with. You might still face rejection when your prospects are having a bad day, or if they are not interested in what you have to say. Perhaps some might have a great relationship with a competitor, or they simply don’t have the time to spend with you at that very moment. It is vital that you don’t take this rejection personally and then carry on making telephonic approaches with this disappointed inflection in your voice. Prospects pick up on this and would be more likely to turn down an appointment with you especially if they can hardly wait to get you off of the phone before you ruin their day with your negativity. It’s hard to sound disappointed if you are honestly smiling. Let me prove to you that there is good reason to smile. Let us assume that the following ratios are true of your sales talents. Out of every ten people that you phone you make five appointments and you successfully close two deals that average R1 000 in commission. You are therefore making R2 000 in commission out of every ten people that you phone. That is R200 per phone call! That should encourage you to be more positive and enthusiastic about making those calls and securing the appointment.

When you do telephone a prospect to make an appointment, remember that an appointment is all that you are trying to achieve. You are not trying to sell your product or service over the phone at the same time. You should avoid the conversation from steering off in that direction or face loosing the appointment or your sales edge. How can you start pushing your product as a solution when you don’t yet fully understand the client’s problem? Should this happen the easiest way to correct it is to smile and say something like “It certainly looks as if we are starting to have our (15 minute / half hour) appointment over the phone! Can we rather agree to discuss this face-to-face where I can also show you what it looks like, how it works, perhaps even bring you a demonstration model to look at?  How are you placed on Tuesday at say 10H00 or would 12H00 suit you better?

Once you have secured the appointment, always thank the prospect for agreeing to meet with you. I find it helpful if you can send some information on yourself, some testimonials from your existing satisfied clients and perhaps a brochure of your services or selected products that you feel will benefit your prospect and that can serve as a starting point of your discussions when you meet. If you are not successful at securing the appointment you can still send this information to your prospect “for their records”. This can be sent immediately via e-mail which is often impressive, or by snail-mail which is less so. Some prospects will read what you have sent them and others will toss it away; don’t let this deter you. I tend to prefer the route of impressing the prospect by sending a standard prepared e-mail document immediately after the discussion. Admittedly, some prospects may not have a permanent connection to the internet, but those who do will be impressed at your efficiency and will reward this ingenuity by reading what you have sent them. Make sure your testimonials from satisfied clients’ stand out and grab their attention. Those you impress are likely to phone you to schedule an appointment.

Don’t only phone prospects when you want something from them. There is much to be said and gained from contacting prospects on the basis of ‘staying in touch’ until something comes up that could be of benefit to both your prospect and yourself. An unyielding secret to successful networking is staying in touch with prospects that may be of value to you now, and if not now, most possibly in your near future.

In the age of the cell phone and answering machine, you might often be asked to leave a message when your prospect is unavailable to take your call. This is not the time to panic and hit the End-Call button. Instead, you can use this opportunity to stir your prospects interest by giving them your key reason for having phoned them as part of your message. For example, let us say that your product can reduce the average company’s printing costs by thirty percent. Your message to your prospect could follow the lines of “Hello James, Gavin Bramley here, from Bramley Printers and Cartridges. We met last month at the Speed Networking Session. I’m sorry I’ve missed you as I was wanting to share with you how I’ve saved a number of your colleagues some thirty percent off their monthly printing costs. If you are interested in how I’ve done it, give me a call on 083-777-xxxx!” The advertising industry calls this a teaser. It is designed to prompt action on the part of the recipient, so it needs to contain something in the message that the receiver perceives as being worth their while to respond to and hence, call you back.

If you are on the receiving end of a call back, that is, you leave messages on your own phone that your prospects and clients might hear, please make them professional and change them often! Enough said.

Why most meetings should have a weekly follow up

Most meetings, especially meetings established to make significant progress on a project should have a weekly follow up. Any other period is just too long. By having a weekly follow up, you enable those persons who are participating in the meetings to keep the projects, their motivation and the group’s vision alive and on track. At these weekly meetings the chairperson will ask only two questions of each of the participants and they will be expected to arrive at the meeting having given due thought and conscious application to their answers.

The two questions are:

What did you do in the past week to meet the goals of the committee, and

What are you intending doing this week to meet the committees goals?

Progress will be measured and encouraged by adopting this approach. Similarly, failure to adhere to the goals or to arrive unprepared should result in a terse word from the chairperson and the shirker’s peers.

These weekly meetings do not need to be long and could in fact take place on the basis of a five minute follow up chat in the chairperson or boss’s office.

How to speed up decision making at long meetings

If you find that the meetings that you are participating in are taking much too long to generate solutions, you could try the following uncomfortable tactics to speed up the process. To improve the concentration and focus of participants in your meeting and to promote decision making expediency, you could try leaving the air conditioning off (for a very quick meeting to discuss one or two issues) or you could simply remove all the chairs from the meeting room.

It is not a good idea to meet just before home time if you want a participative meeting that encourages all points of view leading up to a well thought out decision. Meetings that take place just before ‘home-time’ only encourage the majority of participants to become silent and agreeable as they want to go home. You might find that they will simply agree with the comments of one participant rather than being objective about them. However, when you have bad news to communicate and you are not looking for participative communication you can meet just before closing time. This act of timing the meeting prevents the office gossips from pouring petrol on a small spark of negativity as everyone is keen to get home. Once home they usually get to thinking about the message and often realize that it is not such a big deal after all and return to the workplace accepting the new status quo.

Don’t get this wrong! - Prospects buy benefits not features / People buy what they want, not what they need.

In the sales discussion you would want to remind your prospect of all the benefits of your products or services. When you do so don’t confuse benefits with features. A product will have features but it is the benefits that your contact will buy. A consumer does not buy an electric drill, for its features, he buys it for its benefits! Certainly he might like the features of the drill such as the colour of the drill, the drill bit sizes, the variable speed and hammer function. But nowhere in these features does it say what benefits he would derive should he buy the drill. Here it is: the drill’s most important benefit and the reason he would buy it is because it makes it easy for him to make holes in concrete walls and other materials. He will also buy the drill that he wants, that is, the 300 horse power twin turbo automatic motorised with digital chuck in Ferrari Red, when all he really needs is a hand drill.

In future think about every feature or benefit that you wish to put forward and anticipate your contact responding with “How does that help me?”  If the benefit is of no value to him it will not motivate him to buy it as he doesn’t need it, neither does he want it. So ignore that feature as it has no value to the client.

All sales should be based on an identified need that the contact has. Find the need that he or she has, state the benefit and how it meets that need. For example, if you need to make a hole in the wall to hang a picture frame, you would identify that the need is to make a clean, accurate hole in a cement wall with minimum mess and maximum convenience. You can’t simply say you need to buy a drill as the contact might ask why wouldn’t a large hammer and nail do? One they are convinced of the benefits of owning a drill you can offer them the additional benefits that are derived from the other features.

The more significant or the more graphic a benefit appears to your prospect the stronger your argument will become and the more likely you are to swing their opinion your way. If you can ascertain how your contact prefers to have information presented to them, you may also swing the sale by appealing to and satisfying their need for details and figures or his or her emotional or creative needs, as an example.

Be aware of the Committee’s thinking Preferences

Getting involved as a member on committees is a wonderful way to meet people and make new contacts. However, if you are not comfortable with how to handle yourself in these meetings you could be wasting your time and your opportunity to benefit from such interactions.

Having served on many committees I have witnessed many interactions that are either positive or negative in nature. Let me state at the outset that it is important that every member of the committee should have a role to play in that committee and that every other committee member respects that role and that person’s right to participate.

You must also understand that some committee members will prefer to think about things in very different ways to other members and that this too must be respected. They are not necessarily stupid or slow, careless or reckless. The brain operates in four distinct quadrants according to Ned Herrmann in his book “The Whole Brain Business Book”[1]. There are the two hemispheres that most of us already know about which is the left and the right brain, but Ned Herrmann has established that each hemisphere is divided into an upper and lower quadrant. Read his book, it is incredibly interesting and is applicable to understanding what mental processes turn people on and what processes turn them off. As a salesperson you need to appeal to the analytical or emotional preferences of your prospect to satisfy their needs.

Quite often you will come across a committee member who is highly analytical and who demands every fact no matter how relevant or irrelevant before venturing an opinion or recommending a decision. This member is often process driven and can sometimes come across as unfeeling or uncaring as his decisions are usually not based on people or their emotions. These are your left-brained thinkers.

On the other hand we have the upper right brained thinkers who will want two or three quick facts only before they are ready to make a decision, the lower right brained people will often consider the human and emotional element when making their decisions. Can you imagine a committee set up to service a community and such a committee is made up of only left-brain thinkers? How different will the decisions be that they make when compared to the decisions proposed by the right brain thinkers?

Any committee should be constituted to include an equal number of people from each quadrant so that a balanced decision would result that would take into account all members of a community, not just the analytics or the people persons. You must anticipate that there will be some conflict in these committees as many of the traits of each left or right brain thinker can annoy the other, but each has a valuable role to play. So if the analytic is taking his time over what appears to be a simple decision their analytical brain will stand you in good stead when they often pick up on and raise a point that no-one thought of because no-one else bothered to comprehensively study the rules or Constitution adopted by that committee.

How to be the consummate professional in any meeting

The first and most obvious point is to be well prepared. Create and distribute an agenda if you are presiding over the meeting or ask to have specific topics included in the distributed agenda if you are not.

If you arrive at a meeting unprepared you will be perceived as being lazy or disinterested. Show your interest by bringing forward new ideas, new contacts and new opportunities for the meeting to consider. This demonstrates that you have initiative which is a valuable commodity in any committee.

Try and look at more than one solution to any given problem or issue, and allow fellow members to finish with their proposals before you put forward your thoughts. Consider their contribution with an open mind especially if it contrasts with your proposal that is on the table or that you are about to put forward. If you are going to reject or argue against a proposal, always offer an alternative solution or rather keep quiet if you have none. This makes you appear knowledgeable and considerate rather than destructive or objectionable. What you should strive for, is for your fellow committee members and the people served by the committee to view you as an authority or expert rather than some-one who merely gives an unsubstantiated opinion. Remember the famous words uttered by Clint Eastwood “Opinions are like assholes – everybody has one!”

Being an efficient and effective contributor will make you a valuable member of any committee. That said, take note of the following tips to increase your efficiency and effectiveness to elevated levels:-

·        Listen more than you talk, take note of the message nature has given you. One mouth – two ears! This means you should listen twice as much as you talk.

·        If you are operating as a member of a committee, do not become frustrated with or start to antagonize fellow committee members who do not share the same opinions as you.

·        Never make exaggerated claims or statements, especially as you might be called upon to back them up. When you cannot substantiate your claims you will lose credibility and your effectiveness will be diminished, perhaps permanently and you might be asked to leave the committee.

If no-one is buying your solution and you know that other proposals are stronger than yours, drop your solution and discuss the merits of the stronger solution. This shows that you are open- minded and prepared to consider other opinions. Many people will then respond by considering your opinions too.

·              Make sure everyone understands what you are saying especially when it comes to technical terms or colloquial slang. If you do not understand the terminology or the slang that is being used, ask for its meaning. Not only does it show that you are paying attention, but you will often find that other members will appreciate that you have asked. The meaning of the term or word may well have enlightened them as well.

·              Have a good night’s sleep before the meeting so that you do not struggle to stay awake during the meeting, especially if the meetings tend to be long drawn out ones.

·              Don’t take alcohol into a meeting. If you need refreshment, rather take a soft-drink or water. You need a clear head to make good decisions.

·              Don’t be late for the meeting. Not only does it show disrespect but it also disrupts everyone else. Watch what happens to latecomers in terms of their first contribution at the meeting, they either don’t contribute until the next agenda item is discussed because they fear being embarrassed by asking about something already covered. Those brash enough to soldier on will go right on ahead and raise that point that was already covered and add to their embarrassment of having arrived late.

·              In some committees this next point might seem a little old fashioned, but nonetheless you should always address any comments you might have to the chairperson of that committee. This protocol minimizes direct confrontation with other members of the committee and also shows respect for the elected official.

To facilitate the smooth flow of the discussion and to eliminate confusion, you should state your support or disagreement of an idea by saying so before adding your own point of view.

For example,

“I disagree with Bill	I think that…”
“I agree with Bill	but I also think that…”

·              Always focus on the bigger picture. Don’t get embroiled in insignificant arguments or trivial points. People who get stuck on these issues are just not ready for bigger things and believe me, this gets noticed by the more astute committee members.

·              In line with the previous point, only committee members who can add value to the issues set for discussion should attend the meetings unless there are set quorums that need to be met. This avoids time wasting and having to hear the opinions of committee members who are unable to contribute effectively due to their lack of expertise or experience with those discussion issues. By encouraging this, the meeting is able to proceed at a good pace and hence accomplish what it needs to accomplish and thereafter put committee members and others back to work to implement the finalized decisions. This does not mean that the remaining members are not invited to attend the meeting, but rather that they are asked to attend only if they have something to contribute.

·              Any agreements made, tasks assigned or taken responsibility for by committee members must be recorded in the minutes and then acted upon by the committee member so appointed to act. These minutes must be made available in written format as soon as is humanly possible after the meeting. Any failure to act on these agreements and tasks must result in a reprimand by the chairperson and must be supported by the fellow committee members. There is no point to having meetings about meetings and propagating much talk which results in no action. Why bother with meetings in the first place if nothing is ever going to be achieved? Committee members who consistently fail to perform should be replaced as they are holding back the progress of the group.  Further to this, where a committee represents a number of varied interests and lobby groups, the committee members must treat all decisions as made by the group as a whole unless they have placed on record their disagreement. Notwithstanding this, and to avoid lobby groups from placing undue pressure on committee members which would compromise the decisions of the committee as a whole, no committee member should single out or broadcast individual comments made by any serving committee members in arriving at the final decision . Any committee member with a vested business interest in any topic under consideration must disclose this interest upon joining the committee and especially if the committee is deciding on an issue that would place him or her in a position of ‘conflict of interest’. If necessary, they may be required to remove themselves from the discussions. This should be noted in the minutes.

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[1] Ned Herrmann, The Whole Brain Business Book, McGraw Hill, 2004