|
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions
"I'm a Texas girl born and raised. I was born in Grapevine and raised in Coppell. As an adult I have also lived in the cities of Dallas and Carrollton. I currently live in Lewisville. When people ask me where that is, I tell them if they could draw the triangle of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton on a map, we would be on the Dallas to Denton line. Most people have heard of all those cities and can visualize where my home is. I have traveled all over Texas and other states for both work and vacations, but I love this area and plan to spend me entire life here." Did you attend college in Texas? "I took some classes at Brookhaven College and North Texas University. I received an Associate of Science degree from North Central Texas College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management Information Systems from Dallas Baptist University." What are your qualifications for business writing? "I come from a corporate training environment where I taught time management, team building, problem solving, and meeting management. During my corporate career, I was a facilitator or leader of various types of meetings, projects, and teams. Since 2000, I have been an independent consultant to companies on various types of projects, such as teams, training development, facilitation, presentation delivery, and those requiring my technical expertise. In addition, I have written training manuals and guides on various topics for organizations where I was an employee or a consultant." How did you get started writing? "I've been writing stories and poetry since I was kid. As an adult, I have mostly written training materials and articles." What do you do when you are not writing? "I am a facilitator and consultant. I facilitate meetings, coach team-building efforts, or deliver training. There is information about my services on my website www.ShirleyFineLee.com. The website also has free articles and helpful information." What do you do in your spare time? "Besides writing, I like to read and work in my garden. I call my garden a love garden because it is primarily a shared accomplishment. Some of the plants in it were given to me by friends or relatives. Many were imported from my famous Grandma Parrish's garden in Coppell. My grandfather even posed for a local newspaper with their Century Plant when it finally bloomed." Are you part of any DFW area groups? "I am a member of the American Society for Training and Development and have written articles for the Dallas ASTD chapter newsletter. I have also served as a chapter officer and on both newsletter and website teams." When and where can your books be bought? "Both T.A.P.P. and R.A!.R.A! books are available on www.Amazon.com by searching for author name, the full book title without punctuation marks, or by the ISBN without dashes. There are also quick links to each of the books on Amazon from my website, ShirleyFineLee.com. The books should be available from standard bookstores and other e-stores which sell books as well after August 2010." Why did you decide to write this meeting management book? "I like knowing I'm helping people be better at their jobs. When trying to decide what type of consulting fit me best and what book I should write first, I not only thought about what I enjoyed doing but I looked back at what others have told me I was good at. Where did others brag about me? It was in my ability to facilitate meetings or coach other groups whose meetings were not productive towards more effective meetings using various meetings tools, problem solving techniques, and decision making methods. That made me decide where I was the most beneficial and thus felt most efficient was in meetings and with teams, whether it was training people, coaching groups, or just supporting the process. In order to help more people than those I reach through training or coaching, I took the workbook I designed for training and expanded it to include some of my speaking points, and that resulted in R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach." Why did you use a wizard as the icon for your book? "I chose to use a wizard because the word can imply magic or skill. Once people learn the simple skills related to planning, things appear to work magically for that person or group." How did you come up with the title of R.A!R.A? "When I was developing a meeting training program, I thought about the basic elements that are necessary to a good meeting. I came up with Roles, Agenda, Records, and Actions. When I wrote them down in a column, I noticed the first letters formed the cheer RARA. I liked that because it made me think of pep rallies and how excited people get at them. A really good meeting can be very exciting to attend. So I adopted R.A!R.A! as an approach to turn meetings into pep rallies of productivity." What is different or special about your book? "There are many good books related to meetings but often they are designed primarily for presenters, event coordinators, managers, or meeting facilitators. They work for their audiences and I even recommend some of them. However, I felt it was important to provide an easy-to-follow book that aids anyone in quick learning to improve meetings after a few hours of reading. This book is designed for any meeting or group member who wishes to learn tools that will make their meetings more effective as well as simple methods for applying them to increase productivity. It provides detailed examples and usable forms so readers can begin immediate practice of what they read. This way a busy individual could begin developing new skills while commuting or during short time spans between other duties." How does you book improve meetings? "Many people do not enjoy attending meetings because they feel little gets accomplished and therefore their time was wasted. I wanted to create a book that helps people to understand meetings are an important way to get ideas shared and important tasks accomplished if done properly. This book is designed to help make meetings more effective by offering a quick look at basic meeting management principles and the related skills needed through the RA!RA! approach and other tips. In about an hour, readers will learn: the necessary meeting roles, how to get the right people there, how to start and end meetings on time, how to accomplish more in each meeting, how to insure meeting ideas and decisions are captured, how to accomplish needed tasks and follow-up outside the meeting , and what may detract from a meeting and how to deal with it, and how to improve future meetings." Who is the target audience for this book? "I believe this book will appeal to individuals as a self-improvement tool and to teams as a resource, and it may have a secondary use in organizations as a training tool. The design of the book is to transfer topic skills in a few hours to the reader. This book on effective meeting management is for groups of people to use or for an individual to study for improvement. The book applies to any group regardless of whether the group is public or private, or whether the group comes together for social or business reasons." Why did you decide to write this time management book? “I’ve been teaching time management concepts since 1989. After I published my book “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach” in 2007, many people told me they wished I would write a book on time management because that is really what they need. I’m trying to meet their needs with “T.A.P.P. Steps in Time Management” book.” How did you come up with the title of T.A.P.P? “The letters in T.A.P.P. are an acronym for the four main components to consider when developing a time management systems: Tasks, Appointments, Priorities, and People.” What is different or special about your book? “I do not tell reader they have to do time management my way or sue a particular tool to manage with. Instead I give the reader ideas and examples that reinforce the four components so they can practice time management and design a system that best suits their needs.” How does you book reduce procrastination? “Procrastination is a problem everyone encounters when attempting personal time management. In my book, I list the most common problems people have related to procrastination as interferences with the plan. I then give them suggestions for overcoming each problem.” Who is the target audience for this book? “Although most time management books target business leaders or a specific group of people, I tried to make mine appeal to a general audience. T.A.P.P. has ideas in it anyone can use for self-improvement whether they are thinking of personal or professional time management.”
|
Send email to
admn at shirleyfinelee.com
with
questions or comments about this web site.
|