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For Joanna, Elsa, and Zachary
4 THE SEVEN BASIC MEETING TYPES
NEXT STEPS: DON’T LET HARRY MISS SALLY
My thanks to everyone who has kindly contributed their experiences and insights to this book.
—to Sue, Shelley, Michelle, Paul, Esperide, Kai, and the whole PG team.
—to my agent Julian Alexander, who makes the right meetings happen with the right people at the right time.
—to my editor, Nick Canham, who helped spark the revolution; Steve Burdett, who worked so hard on the manuscript; Laura Lees for the great PR; Tim Broughton for his marketing expertise; and all at HarperCollins who have made the whole experience a real pleasure.
—to my parents for providing a rich source of anecdotes, some of which they will be surprised (pleasantly, I hope!) to find featured in this book.
—to Jean and Thomas for sparking off at least one revolution.
—to Jeremy, Bruce and all the Lively Artists, as well as Phil and all at Upstage.
—to the two Davids—Glass and McCready—who’ve taught me more than anyone about what’s really going on when human beings meet.
—and finally, to all of you everywhere who got fed up with nearly meeting and decided to start really meeting instead. Keep going!
Back in March 2011, at the earliest stages of the book, my editor Nick Canham called a meeting. He wanted to get his colleagues at HarperCollins interested in the book; enrolled, excited. Clearly he did OK, or we wouldn’t be here now. But I was curious. What was it that had brought these hardened publishing professionals to the meeting? Was it the importance of the subject? The irrefutable logic? The exquisite prose style?
I told them I’d bring donuts, said Nick.
That gave us our title. And it gives us our starting point. If the donuts are the most interesting thing about your meetings, this book is for you.
It’s something we often say, but don’t always mean. In this case I really am pleased to meet you, if only by the rather arm’s-length medium of this book.
My intention in writing Will There Be Donuts? is to make the world a more interesting place. Or rather that you will. I am just going to help you make it fun.
And we are going to do it one
