Reading time:  2.5 minutes
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Use "News and Goods" to start meetings:

When beginning a business meeting, ask group members to share something new and good that's happened since the previous meeting.  For example, successful campaigns, great new hires, innovative ideas, etc.  In short, "What's been working?"  Doing this raises the positive energy in the group and makes meeting productivity more likely.

My late friend Bob Dye, former national director of the YMCA,told me that at annual meetings, he'd ask regional directors to share successes.  The positive energy stimulated by these "bragging sessions" provided enthusiasm for the meeting days ahead.

The management practice called "Appreciative Inquiry" asks not "What are your problems?", but "What's working?"  Now used in many organizations both large and small, AI allows a group to harvest solutions and good ideas.

In the 5 MasterMind groups I have created, we always began with a few minutes of sharing good news.  Positive sharing has been a great platform for creating future successes.