10 Fundamentals for Effective Meeting

Here are ten fundamental concepts that characterize an effective meeting.

Definition: A meeting is a business activity where select people gather to perform work that requires a team effort.

A meeting, like any business event, succeeds when it is preceded by planning, characterized by focus, governed by structure, and controlled by a budget.

Three things guarantee an unproductive meeting: poor planning, lack of appropriate process, and hostile culture. Effective leaders attend to all of these to create an effective meeting.

Effective meetings require sharing control and making commitments.

Short meetings free people to work on the essential activities that represent the core of their jobs. In contrast, long meetings prevent people from working on critical tasks such as planning, communicating, and learning.

The ultimate goals of every meeting are agreements, decisions, or solutions. Meetings held for other reasons seldom produce anything of value.

Unprepared participants will spend their time in the meeting preparing for the meeting.

It is better to spend a little time preparing for solutions than to spend a lot of time fixing problems.

Meetings are an investment of resources and time that should earn a profit.

A meeting can be led from any chair in the room. And if it's your meeting, you want it to be your chair.

IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who want to hold effective meeting. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Call 714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com

In The News:
table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/jobs/23mgmt.html%3Fref%3Dbusinesscid=1273507103ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNE2qwZmVtqpyrAKzMnW6sWTm5Rw3gimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=jcWcHTte0nwJimgurl=graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/23/business/23mgmt.1901.jpg width=40 height=80 alt= border=1brfont size=-2New York Times/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/jobs/23mgmt.html%3Fref%3Dbusinesscid=1273507103ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNE2qwZmVtqpyrAKzMnW6sWTm5Rw3gUnder New bManagement/b Why Should Recession Stop the Recruiters?/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fNew York Times,nbsp;United Statesnbsp;-/font nobr21 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1In a survey in early October of nearly 450 human resources officials by the Society for Human Resource bManagement/b, some 39 percent thought that future b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table
table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://edge.networkworld.com/topics/application-management.html%3Ftnav%3D_l5002_t4_s26cid=1273583508ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNH4RBAkJA6pTJPxYnxaHVw_mTw7KQApplication bManagement/b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fNetworkWorld.com,nbsp;MAnbsp;-/font nobr5 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Open source bmanagement/b software provider Hyperic this week introduced an upgrade to its platforms that lets IT managers monitor virtual environments,. b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://edge.networkworld.com/topics/patch-management-m.html%3Ftnav%3D_l5002_t4_s28cid=1273583508ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNGAmzbi_1_jOw7yOBTwReHmvDgKNgPatch bManagement/b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrNetworkWorld.com/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://edge.networkworld.com/topics/asset-management.html%3Ftnav%3D_l5002_t4_s104cid=1273583508ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNG3ZzhY7OdxbRpoIUsK1aWn6qJmgAAsset bManagement/b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrNetworkWorld.com/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://edge.networkworld.com/topics/identity-management.html%3Ftnav%3D_l5002_t4_s103cid=1273583508ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNHFc29RdcoGtesyE2i1I_fp3FPD7AIdentity bManagement/b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrNetworkWorld.com/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1 class=pa href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://edge.networkworld.com/topics/net-management.html%3Ftnav%3D_l5002_t4_s90cid=1273583508ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNGpXKC5p9c2mVEj2n7gY4fis5XjLgnobrNetworkWorld.com/nobr/a/fontbr/font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1273583508hl=ennobrall 5 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table
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table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.bandonwesternworld.com/articles/2008/11/23/sports/doc49248c924a62f667867738.txtcid=1273570682ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNEo2xkB0m3O-b2U-mCUA9jJKAWBdw» Black-tailed deer bmanagement/b plan/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBandon Western World,nbsp;ORnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has adopted a black-tailed deer bmanagement/b plan, the state’s first-ever long-term strategy to manage these deer b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table
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table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-disddeficit_23met.ART.State.Edition2.4a55e07.htmlcid=1273515248ei=CqcpSeSSMaCQ6APU-6hBusg=AFQjCNECoe_FyylydmSP8R_QnLpbg9ARugDallas school officials missed, misread signs of deficit/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fDallas Morning News,nbsp;TXnbsp;-/font nobr10 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1For anyone trying to understand how the budget mess developed, Deloitte amp; Touche#39;s 2006-07 audit – and its accompanying quot;Report to bManagement/bquot; – is a good b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table
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