Root and Stomp it !

Your preparation should start with determining your purpose. What do you want the meeting to do? If you don’t have a purpose, don’t hold a meeting. It’s as simple as this: when it is not necessary to hold a meeting, it is necessary to not hold a meeting.

Determining your purpose involves more than just answering the question, “Why are you meeting?” After all, you could answer that question “Because we always meet on Monday morning” (the “same time, same place” logic) or “Because it’s been a month since we had a meeting.” Neither of those
answers provides a purpose—other than that you would be meeting for the purpose of meeting. That line of reasoning leads to mediocre meetings, because it doesn’t guide or inspire your
preparation.

If meetings are not required by organizational policy or a mandate from the top, set a rule for your self: justify each and every meeting. Your touchstone should be that basic question—What do you want the meeting to do?

Don’t Waste Your Time and Energy
If you don’t have purpose enough for a meeting, you can never do enough planning to compensate.
The result would be only a wellplanned waste of time and energy. As economist John Maynard
Keynes noted,“If a thing is not worth doing, it is not worth doing well.”

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings

Whether you’ve got one purpose for meeting or several, you need to answer the following questions for each purpose in order to develop an agenda:

• What do you want to do?
• How should the pieces of the meeting be sequenced most effectively and efficiently?
• Who should attend? Which parts of the meeting? Why is each person necessary?

Agenda A plan for a meeting.We’re all familiar with the term and the basic definition. But sometimes managers start off target, by thinking of an agenda simply as “a list of things to cover.” It’s useful, then, to keep in mind the origin of this word. It’s the plural of the Latin word agendum, which means “something to be done,” from the verb that gives us our word “act.” In other words, an agenda is a plan consisting of action points.

Go Solo or as a Team

As you start planning for a meeting, there’s a decision to make: do you go it alone or do you involve others?

Many managers prepare for meetings alone, primarily because it’s easier—especially if they have only a few minutes here and there to spend on preparing—or because they feel that it’s their responsibility as managers their responsibility as managers.
But it’s easy to involve others, even minimally. Toward the end of each meeting, the facilitator can elicit suggestions for the agendas of future meetings.
Preparing as a group presents the following advantages:
• You can take advantage of the creativity and critical thinking of your employees.
• You can encourage your employees to take greater ownership of meetings.
• You can help your employees develop their leadership skills.
• You can delegate some of the preparation.

Working as a group takes more planning and time, but the benefits will be worth the extra investment. If the meeting is to be simple and focused, you can plan with just one or two people. There are several ways to choose the people to help plan:
• By their strengths: organizational, interpersonal, analytical, creative, logical, etc.
• By their positions within your unit, to represent task areas or functions.

• By their social connections with other employees in your unit and perhaps in other units.

If someone other than yourself will be facilitating the meeting, you should also involve him or her in planning it. By the way, it’s not necessary to invite the planners to the meeting. The people who are best at planning a meeting are not necessarily the ones who should attend the meeting.

Finally, even if you choose to plan the meeting alone, you might benefit from distributing a draft agenda to participants and inviting reactions. Not only will you improve your agenda because of the input, but the participants will have a sense of ownership and will be able to prepare for the meeting.

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings

Any meeting worth holding is worth planning. The only exception to this rule is impromptu meetings. Although it’s sometimes necessary to call a meeting with little or no notice, you should avoid doing so routinely, for the following reasons:

• Such meetings can be an imposition on the people you call together.
• Every impromptu meeting promotes the perception that you don’t expect participants to prepare for meetings.
• The results can be be disappointing, because, without a plan, the meeting can veer off track.

We’ve all attended meetings that seemed to have been “just thrown together”—and the results are often mediocre at best:
confusion, frustration, conflicts, disappointment, and time and energy wasted. In the oft-quoted words of Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

It’s true that sometimes it’s impossible to prepare adequately. Sometimes something comes up suddenly that necessitates gathering at least briefly. But you’ve got to avoid allowing one bad meeting to be followed by another. That’s because bad meetings usually lead to worse meetings, as shown in Figure 2-1.

The result of this downward cycle is that everybody tends to develop a fatalistic attitude toward meetings—and that can be a tough attitude to break. So, bad meetings usually lead to worse
meetings.

The reverse is also true: good meetings often lead to better meetings. And good meetings start in advance—with good preparation.

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings

We’ve briefly considered the differences between bad meetings and good meetings. But the difference that concerns us in the rest of this book is you. You can be the difference between bad meetings and good meetings.

You’ve already committed to improving your meetings by starting to read this book. We hope that you will read it to the end—and make use of it.

This book will take you step by step through the meeting process:

Chapter 2 outlines and discusses the details of preparing for a meeting.
Chapter 3 explains how to start a meeting, including setting rules and assigning roles and responsibilities.
Chapter 4 offers suggestions for conducting a meeting.
Chapter 5 explains how to close a meeting and follow up on the results.
Chapter 6 describes a selection of techniques and tools for helping meeting participants work together more effectively and efficiently.
Chapter 7 presents common problems with meetings and ways to deal with them.
Chapter 8 discusses the use of technological tools and the issues involved in meeting virtually (online).

Manager’s Checklist for Chapter 1

? Meetings can energize the participants, promote teamwork, and generate important results—or waste time and money and cause serious problems. As manager, you make the difference between good meetings and bad.
? Meetings can go bad for many reasons. Problems can develop in advance of the meeting, as the meeting begins, during the meeting, as the meeting ends, or after the meeting— and virtually all can be prevented.
? Bad meetings are bad for you as a manager, for your employees, for your organization, and for your career.
? Good meetings allow you and your employees to discuss important issues and reach decisions together, encourage your employees to develop their abilities to think critically, draw upon the experiences of your employees and others, help your employees work better as a team, and promote
a sense of community.

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings

Hopefully, you are a bit more enlightened on the ethics and discipline on your music video set. Of course there is so much more to it but what you’ve read so far should be enough to “smoothen the ride”.

Here are additional tips that will help you get the most out of your shoot:

1. Choose your locations carefully. The more interesting the locations, the more likely you are to achieve superior results. Bare walls make it difficult to frame interesting shots. White walls, on the other hand make it difficult to light selectively since they reflect all the light in room.
2. Get the best equipment possible. Try getting HDV cameras. Their operation is very much like regular miniDV cameras and…
• They don’t cost much more to rent/hire
• They give a superb picture quality
3. Invest in a 35mm adapter and a selection of lenses. These tools alone (if used properly) will put your video in the professional league.
4. Give out specific tasks. Your shoot will be much easier and pleasant if each person is concentrating on one specific tasks. If you have dedicated friends and fans this shouldn’t
be too hard to achieve,
5. Food and drink. Make sure the band and crew are catered for. They will love you more (read: work harder) especially if they are not getting paid much or working for free.
6. Get a good sound system for playback. Having a proper sound system (if permitted by location) will boost everyone’s energy levels and make your video that much more fun to watch!
7. Have fun! Enjoy yourself. You are a STAR!

All the best! I can’t wait to see hit your video!

If you have further questions or suggestions I can be contacted at: giosis2e@hotmail.com

Taken From : How to get the most out of your music video shoot

In the world of business and industry competition is inherent to the manipulation of business and industry. This is because there are five forces that continue to press their every step.

These forces are developed by M.E. Porter “Competition from suppliers of substitutes, the threat from entrants, competition from established producers, and the bargaining power from suppliers and buyers.” The overall driving force comprehensive competition is poured in the picture below.

Read the rest of this entry »

With this nature, it is clear that the business needs of others. The seller requires the buyer, the buyer requires the seller. Business may not run, without the others.
Thus, the entrepreneur is also the relation between the human world. related to the social aspect is very large. Of successful business people, or more precisely a successful entrepreneur who can be the person who respects other people. Because the self-conscious, without other people, no business may be a way. Who will buy the products, if not other people?

We can say that their success is the individuals who will understand the true concept of “mutual dependence” in life. The concept is the basic idea that most primary of all human beings, both in the household, and in business association.

Science enterpriser enterpriser desires to realize the full all that. First profession as a businessman, depending on the absolute willingness by people to buy products. Although some employers “karbitan” does not feel the need of others, because her parents are a powerful officials, the position is very fragile. Existence is only rely on parents alone, and in time, must also come down from the stage occupation. If it happens, the story also finished himself as a businessman.

Therefore, an entrepreneur must be built first with the social aspects of learning the way other people like, respect and want to socialize with anyone. Every opportunity to speak and meet with people, it means the opportunity for. Not to promote merchandise, but the first to promote itself as a sympathetic figure who, full attention to the fellow, polite and friendly faces, and implies that always want to help. Remember, people do not proactively pull, but it is looking for opportunities to meet other people. Meeting and talking with people can be enjoyed.

By the way, the image itself will be more prominent than the merchandise they own. So, any commodity sold, people will prefer to buy them, from on to the other party. This is more easily demonstrated in the fields of business and professional services, such as food stalls, workshops, practice doctor, lawyer, notary, and others.

Efforts on a large scale, the social aspect is not less important. When a community known as the business leaders that greedy, selfish, and oppress other people, at the time a disturbance occurs, the small possibility that the following offices or shop-store can escape into the target.

The entrepreneurs, especially those working in areas such as consulting and professional services, namely business, which rely more on the image of individuals, it is more active in dealing with the public. Such as, for example, speaking in seminars, writing articles in magazines, participate in social or professional organizations, and various activities such. The more it appears the community, the more he is known, and has a greater chance for success.

Managers often fail to maximize on the potential of meetings. They waste valuable opportunities—for themselves, for their employees, and for the organization. Here are just some of the many possible benefits to be derived through meetings:

• You can share information—and learn from your employees—in a setting that allows and even encourages interaction.
• You can answer questions.
• You can ask questions.
• You can discuss important issues and reach decisions as a group.
• You can direct and coordinate the individual and joint efforts of your employees.
• You can help your employees develop their abilities to think critically.
• You can draw upon the experiences of your employees and others.
• You can get your employees to raise questions and identify problems.
• You can gain perspectives on an issue.
• You can observe how your employees interact.
• You can help your employees work better as a team.
• You can display and develop many of your managerial skills.
• You can promote a sense of community.

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings

He/she is the one whose job it is to have the final vision of your video. Since you already put your trust in him work with him/her to bring that vision to reality.

Don’t flirt around with the extras or even worse make out/have sex when you are supposed to be shooting; it may look cool in movies but you will probably not like the results if you do this on your set. Give him/her your best. After all it is you career that is at stake!

Don’t forget: A lot of things will be paid for by the hour so the more time you waste…Enough said.
There is another very sensitive area which very often brings problems on set.

The artist/band often feels that since it is their video they should have a go at directing. The director, quite rightfully, is often uncomfortable with this, to say the least.

Partly for the same reason your roadie shouldn’t have a go at your solo during the climax of the show just because he feels like it, even if he is a very skilled guitar player.

Imagine how you would feel if you had four different people pulling your arms in different directions when you doing 100km/hour. This may be quite an exaggeration but, the point is, you will probably
lose control of the situation, with disastrous effects.

The solution? First of all, if you want to co-direct make sure it is agreed before the shoot. It is also best for only one member of the band to take on this role.

Otherwise…

Except if you have an absolutely brilliant, divinely inspired idea during the shoot, it is best to keep it to yourself.

Rule of thumb: Never give instructions directly to the crew, always talk to the director, he/she is the professional, and it is his /her job. Funny enough, more experienced crew members may actually ignore you. You may end up feeling bad and having to shoot the video by yourself!

Taken From : How to get the most out of your music video shoot

Beyond the negative effects of meetings outlined above, there’s one more that could be huge—the effect on your career. Again, the meeting is a microcosm of the workplace. As we noted earlier, a meeting is a type of project—a project in which you show how you manage. If you do meetings well, people recognize your abilities as a manager. If you have problems with meetings, it’s generally obvious to your employees—and to others in the organization and maybe beyond.

The skill to manage a meeting—to develop ideas, to motivate people and to move people and ideas to positive action—is perhaps the most critical asset in any career….
Most professionals have had no real training in devising and managing an effective meeting; in fact, most professionals do not recognize the enormous impact their meetings have on their organizations and their careers.

That’s how George David Kieffer summed up the discussions he had with “some of America’s most successful and respected leaders in business, labor, industry, education, and government” in The Strategy of Meetings (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988, p. 13).

He devotes 50 pages of his book to the importance of meetings for careers. In brief, to succeed as a manager, you have to manage meetings.

Bad Meetings Make Bad Companies
“Meetings matter because that’s where an organization’s culture perpetuates itself. Meetings are how an organization says, ‘You are a member.’ So if every day we go to boring meetings full of boring people, then we can’t help but think that this is a boring company. Bad meetings are a source of negative messages about our company and ourselves.”
That thought-provoking comment comes from William R. Daniels, senior consultant at American Consulting & Training of San Rafael, California, who has introduced meeting-improvement techniques to companies (quoted by Eric Matson in “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings,” Fast Company, April 1996).

Taken From : The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings