HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

Meetings. They hold such promise for moving your business forward but are rarely executed well. We all know what we're supposed to do to run meetings effectively, but we seldom do it. Why? Perhaps we think it's just not worth the time to clarify what we hope to accomplish, craft an agenda, handpick participants, issue pre-work, and send out notes with key decisions and next steps. But meeting preparation and follow-up is time well spent. This guide offers tips to make your meetings easier to prepare for, more enjoyable to run - and more productive. In time, these steps will become so ingrained you won't be able to imagine running meetings any other way. Your team - and your entire organization - will thank you for it. You'll learn how to:

• Determine if you need to meet
• Manage basic meeting prep
• Develop a reputation for running great meetings
• Infuse new energy into meetings by removing some chairs, banning mobile devices, and booking 20- or 50-minute slots
• Orchestrate group decision making
• Prevent implementation roadblocks by giving all participants a voice
• Get the most out of web - and phone - conferencing tools
• Corral chronic latecomers and quiet windbags
• Make it safe to discuss the elephant in the room
• Jump into the conversation - with grace
• Rescue meetings from hell, even if you're not the facilitator
• Keep the momentum going with prompt meeting follow-up

This collection includes:

• "How to Run an Effective Meeting"
• "The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings"
• "Why We Secretly Love Meetings"
• "Give Your Standing Meetings a Makeover"
• "Extreme Ways to Shorten and Reduce Meetings"
• "The 50-Minute Meeting"
• "How to Get People to Look Forward to Your Meetings"
• "How to Reach Group Decisions During Meetings"
• "Tips for Getting Full Participation in Meetings"
• "Tips for Virtual Meetings"
• "Making Global Meetings Work"
• "When Bad Things Happen During Good Meetings"
• "How to Interject in a Meeting"
• "Stuck in a Meeting from Hell? Here's What to Do"

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