Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions

A best-seller in its first edition, Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions, Second Edition covers everything you need to know about organizing engaging meetings, including preparing agendas, controlling what happens behind the scenes prior to and after meetings, and managing conflicting values and personalities. Through the Meeting Masters Research Project at the University of Michigan, author John E. Tropman observed and interviewed the nation′s most successful meeting experts to find out how to make meetings both stimulating and productive. Based on his findings, Tropman formulated seven principles and fourteen commandments for implementing dynamic meetings. This second edition has been extensively revised and expanded to include Family meetings and family group decision making Problems and solutions for board of directors meetings Community and civic meetings Volunteers and meetings Leadership in community decision making Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions, Second Edition provides simple, easily applied best practices for supervising or instigating meetings with decision accomplishment outcomes. Author John E. Tropman reveals goal oriented procedures that keep proposals moving towards quality group decision making and assure other participants look forward to attending your meetings. Written with humor and a deep understanding of the realities of business and political life, Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions, Second Edition is an extraordinary resource for anyone who leads, facilitates, or attends meetings.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part 1 Paradigm Shift 1 Principle Driven: the Seven Imperatives Part 2 Managing Agenda Organization 2 Managing Agenda Organization 3 Managing Agenda Dieting: The Rule of the Agenda Bell 4 Managing Meeting Text: The Written Rules 5 Managing Participant Trust: The Integrity Rules 6 Managing Premeeting and Postmeeting Tasks 7 Managing Rehearsals, Performances, and Audiences 8 Managing Emotional Elements of Meetings 9 Managing the Flow of Ideas and Proposals: Dealing With Difficulties in Idea Processing 10 Managing Bases for Decisions in Meetings: The Decision and Choice 11 Managing Decision and Choice 12 Managing Positions and Roles in Meetings 13 Managing Tasks and Functions in Meetings 14 Managing Conflicting Values in Meetings 15 Managing the Evaluation Rules Part 3 Becoming a Master Meeting Manager: Some Tips on Application 16 Becoming a Master Meeting Manager 17 Implementing Total Quality Meetings (TQM) Part 4 Strategic Perspectives on Meetings 18 The Meeting: Lore and Legend 19 The Negative Culture of Meetings 20 But Whay Do Things Go Wrong? 21 Quality Management Equals Quality Decisions Part 5 Leadership in Family Meeting and Civic/Community Meeting Decision Making 22 Family Group Decision Making and the Family Meeting 23 The Eclipse of Community and the Civic Meeting: From Bowling Alone to Meeting Alone 24 Crisis in Governance: Problems With Boards of Directors 25 Leadership in Community Decision Making: Ends and Means Appendix A Writing Samples Appendix B Sample Evaluatin Sheet References Index Bibliography

About the Author :
John E. Tropman teaches at the University of Michigan in the School of Social Work and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. In the school of business, his courses focus on organizational design, organizational culture, rewards systems, and organizational change. In the School of Social Work, his courses focus on executive leadership and policy development. He also teaches in the Executive Education Programs at the University of Michigan. He has written over 40 books and many articles. Tropman works with a number of organizations in a consultative capacity, including for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental entities, assisting them in strategic planning, developing effective decision systems and managing change, as well as providing executive training. He also works with individual executives, assisting them in their own career development.