According to a recent study reported in the New York Times, 91 million workers spend time in meetings each week. Of those, fully 75% report that much of what goes on in these meetings is a waste of time.

Our thought? Fix your meetings! By bringing Guila Muir?s one-day ?Prevent Meetings from Hell? course to your workplace, your meetings will become shorter and more productive. We guarantee it.

No matter what your training session is about, a crossword puzzle will help get the message across. Use a crossword as a quiz, a hook, or a closing activity.

It's easy to create these puzzles. Just use concepts and terms you have introduced during class.

Send Guila the crossword puzzle you have created using the link below. You may win a prize and get your name in our next newsletter!

Pre-Training Preparation: Think of a relevant word from your session. Choose a somewhat emotional word for participants in this particular topic area. (Examples: "Discipline,? ?Audit,? ?Conflict.?)

Implementation: Instruct (seated) participants to start moving one foot in a clockwise circle.

Once all participants are moving their legs in a circle, introduce the word you have chosen. Then tell them to write that word in the air with one finger. They must continue moving their feet in a clockwise circle.

Watch the participants struggle to write the word. Encourage them to keep trying. Acknowledge how hard it is, and how challenging it can be for people to deal effectively with this issue in the workplace.

Stop the action. Facilitate a brief dialogue about participants' experiences.

Assure the group that this training will help them deal with this challenging subject. It will never seem this impossible again!

Guila and company want to thank all of you Readers for your comments. See you again in May!