What makes for a great meeting? As a leader, how can you keep discussions on point and productive? In How to Run a Meeting, Antony Jay argues that too many leaders fail to plan adequately for meetings. In this bestselling article, he defines the characteristics that contribute to success, from keeping formal minutes to acknowledging junior staff first. These guidelines will help you get demonstrably better results from every meeting you run. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice. The Harvard Business Review Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world.

It seems these days that everyone hates meetings. How many times have you heard someone say, "We have too many meetings," or "I am booked so solid every day in meetings I never have time to get anything done," or "I'm back-to-back..." But when you talk to people, it isn't that they hate meetings; it's that they don't like meetings in which nothing gets done. No one is sure why the meeting was called, or why half the people are in the room, or what exactly is supposed to get done, or what was decided. We complain about meetings, but we seem to attend more and more of them. This book is for people who need to lead effective meetings, in any context. It is a blueprint for how to have your meetings work, defined as, meetings that achieve the results you want to achieve, in the meeting and afterwards. It's a how-to guide for using the time you spend planning, organizing and conducting meetings wisely. It's about getting results through meetings. Why are effective meetings important? Meeting quality matters. Well-run organizations have well-run meetings. Sloppily run organizations have sloppily run meetings. What are the signs of a bad meeting? The meeting starts late. There is no agenda. The meeting runs over. No one is sure what if anything was decided or accomplished. The same meeting to discuss the same topic seems to be held over and over again. No one knows what the next steps are or who is supposed to follow up whom for what. Someone monopolizes the meeting and someone else talks in circles, while yet someone else seems to simply rephrase and repeat what has already been said. Nothing discourages people, whether volunteers or employees, like feeling they are wasting their time. Too many meetings waste time. They sap morale, and leave people frustrated or irritated. This is a shame, as leading an effective meeting is not rocket science once you have a blueprint. If you have an allergic reaction to wasting time in meetings, this book is for you. It is divided into five principal sections: - Preparation - Invitation - Agenda - Delivery - Follow Up The sections outline the five phases of a meeting. For your meeting to be successful (again, defined as, a meeting that achieves the results you want to achieve), you must execute each phase successfully. Meetings versus Presentations The tips in this book are intended to apply to both meetings, in which various people interact in a more-or-less informal setting, and presentations, occasions on which a speaker presents material to an audience in a structured, more-or-less formal setting. Some principles apply more directly to meetings, others to presentations. All are relevant to both.

This book shows that the value of group decision making lies in its ability to bring together people with a variety of different expertise and experiences. These techniques are applied to problems such as health care, homlessness and family violence.

Preface -- Setting the meeting stage -- So many meetings and so much frustration -- Get rid of meetings? no, solve meetings through science -- Evidence-based strategies for leaders -- The image in the mirror is likely wrong -- Meet for 48 minutes -- Agendas are a hollow crutch -- The bigger, the badder -- Don't get too comfortable in that chair -- Deflate negative energy from the start -- No more talking! -- The folly of the remote call-in meeting -- Putting it all together -- Epilogue: trying to get ahead of the science' using science -- Tool: meeting quality self-assessment -- Tool: sample engagement survey and 360 feedback questions on meetings -- Tool: good meeting facilitation checklist -- Tool: huddle implementation checklist -- Tool: agenda template -- Tool: guide to taking good meeting minutes/notes -- Tool: expectations assessment -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Index

Have you just been asked to chair a meeting, or take the minutes, or set up a meeting agenda? Need some help? Would samples of an agenda or minutes be useful? What about some techniques for chairing a meeting or dealing with difficult people? Then this "How to ." book is for you. In it you will find: how to decide whether there should be meeting how to set up the agenda the importance of setting timeframes in the agenda-and sticking to them how to make sure that time is not wasted and the important items are covered how to chair the meeting how to stop time wasters and to make sure you spend the right time on the right topics how the minute taker can collect the right information during the meeting how to write the minutes how to get the best out of the participants how to deal with difficult people There are also: a checklist for the meeting chair agenda example and agenda template minutes example and minutes template a checklist for how to improve your meetings a checklist for getting the best out of people a checklist for the minute taker a checklist for dealing with disagreements, differences and conflict

RUN BUSINESS MEETINGS THAT ARE FOCUSED, PRODUCTIVE, AND BENEFICIAL TO YOUR ORGANIZATION In business, meetings are necessary but not always efficient. But by using the principles in Plan and Conduct Effective Meetings, you'll discover 24 easy-to-implement techniques geared to make your meetings more productive than ever before. This step-by-step guide goes straight to the heart of meeting planning and facilitating, explaining why meetings go wrong and what to do about it. You'll learn to conduct meetings that stay sharply focused; turn participants into valuable contributors; and make decisions that result in actionable tasks. This guide also discusses video- and teleconferencing, so you can use those powerful technologies to your advantage, too. Plus, you'll: Discover how preparation can guarantee meeting success Learn to begin each meeting with a purpose and end with an accomplishment Understand each participant's role, to increase productivity Discover how to deal with problems during meetings Find out how to neutralize time-wasting interpersonal conflicts Get tips on using technology to hold virtual meetings

Run more productive meetings. Whether you're new to running meetings or a seasoned executive with no time to waste, leading effective (and even pleasant!) meetings is a must. Running Meetings guides you through the basics of: Crafting a useful agenda Inviting the right team members Making sure everyone's voice is heard while avoiding conflict Capturing decisions, ideas, and follow-up tasks Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives—from the most trusted source in business.