You don't expect easy answers from the WAG. So I chose not to review the top stories of 2005. Any hack can do that. It's much more fun to feature what I project will be front page news in 2006. Ok now, look deep into the crystal ball...

1) More Boomers will stay on the job
Fully 43% of the workforce is eligible to retire in the next ten years according to Business Week. But I anticipate that many boomers will want to stay engaged at work. In equal fashion, companies will beg boomers to delay their retirement as experienced managers and skilled workers become more scarce. Imagine...gray will be hip again.

I don't feel the need to persuade you that most meetings stink. I am confident that you have passed enough wasted hours in a meeting room to know that painful truth. Sadly, just last week I spent two hours in a confabulation that should have taken 20 minutes.

I am in the business of making simple what are complex issues. In that tradition, I have pinpointed two reasons why meetings stink: A) the convener does not know how to run a useful meeting; B) the convener likes being the convener so he milks the attention for all its worth.

Assuming that you do not fit in Category B - in which case you do not need to read further...instead go call a therapist - I offer some tried and useful tips for running a useful meeting.

It started at 5:30 am today. The invasion of the beeps, that is. I am not normally an early riser. But the driver of the municipal garbage truck wanted to make sure that he did not reverse into my bed. In fact, a resounding set of beeps let me know exactly to where on the street the garbage truck had progressed.

An hour later the beeps returned for a second intervention. This time, they found an attack position inside the clock on my dresser. Ok, more honestly, I invited them to blast me awake. All the same, I relish the day that I can take a baseball bat to that alarm clock.

You feel stuck. The product offering that put your organization on the map has gone stagnant. Your gut tells you that your customers are moving in a different direction. But changing your core business model feels impossible, if not risky.

If that scenario describes your organization, you are not alone. It is not just the business enterprise that is getting lost in transition; a large slice of not-for-profit organizations also sense they are waking up in the wrong era.