Robert's Rules of Order - Funeral Announcement

Henry Robert was a US Army Major who wrote a book in 1876 intended to provide clear rules of order to be used in "deliberative assemblies".

What the heck is a deliberative assembly?

A "deliberative assembly" is a governing body of people who come together for the purpose of unhurried consideration and discussion. It is a place for extensive deliberation and discussion and examination. Their purpose is to "govern".  An example is the US House of Representatives  or the Senate. 

An Assembly of people gathered for"unhurried consideration and discussion" is a far cry from what we need in our business meetings today! Yet the shadow of Henry Robert is still in our meetings and that needs to change. 

We should have had a funeral for Robert's Rules and moved on a long time ago. When Robert came up with his rules, it was a really different time for human beings. We had not yet invented telephones, electric lights, cars, airplanes, or computers. Today's meeting needs and business environments are results and time focused.  We urgently need a goal-driven, time sensitive, technologically savvy way to meet and make decisions that can be used in our global business world in virtual as well as face to face meetings. We need to leave behind these outmoded practices and stop wasting time for convention. 

Are You Dying in Inefficient Meetings?

Four years after the book Death by Meeting, people are still dying in inefficient meetings. Nothing makes me crazier than to sit in a meeting with someone grandstanding or taking the meeting off on a tangent, wasting everyone's precious time. This problem is rampant, and most people hate it. I surveyed 1000 business people over the last 3 years and found only 7 people who are happy with the efficiency, productivity, and time spent in meetings they attend. That is .7%!!  . . . . not a very good showing. 

The desire to change meetings is pretty universal in the US; the motivation exists; smart business people are running the show - so what's the problem? Here it is in a nutshell:

1. There has been no comprehensive solution or way to implement it. 

2. We are creatures of habit. This is especially true when a habit is part of our culture and there is a long history of doing a certain way. 

3. People are too busy with a multitude of urgent priorities to make the time to step back and figure out the way to change it. Until now...

I just spent a year of my life coming up with a solution. It is a get-to-the-point, cut-out-the-fluff meeting method to replace the current meeting rituals that have their roots in Robert's Rules of Order. 

See "Robert's Rules of Order are Dead" blog entry