Customer Reviews

Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings That Get Results

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Meeting Excellence is an extremely useful book. As its sub title suggests, Parker &Hoffman have consciously chosen to give their readers a toolkit versus a tome. They're smart for going that route and have, in my view, done a terrific job. Few organizations make meeting facilitation a priority - hence we don't see many meeting leaders getting very good at it. But for those who have the self awareness and the self interest for improving their productivity, this book is a must read. What's useful is that the book is written in an extremely readable style and organized in a format that works well for the novice meeting leader as well as the pro. They cover the landscape from ice-breakers to ensuring post meeting effective action and include vital tips on handling the land mines associated with tele/video-conference meetings as well. They even have a fun, short piece on integrating food into the meeting leading strategy. And although committed to the micro- toolkit approach, Parker &Hoffman are smart in recognizing that there's also a big picture to this challenge and have included a brief but excellent Fast Company article called: The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings. It helps the reader frame the challenge and puts the toolkit in a helpful context. All in all Parker and Hoffman have made an excellent contribution to the noble and worthy cause of making our meetings less deadly and less sinful.

Hoffman and Parker have produced a high quality piece of work by coming up with pragmatic, clear and practical book on effective meeting management. This easy to read and use book is among the best on the market on meeting design, facilitation and management.

After reading this book, the reader will realize that meetings need not be just a nuisance and total waste of time and resources, but can be a very effective tool for the success of an organization if it is effectively managed.

All in all, the authors have offered solid and timely advice to help managers ensure that meetings presentations are professional and effective, everyone participates in the discussion, conflicts are effectively resolved, the meeting is kept lively, there is focus on achieving meeting goals and managers can choose among several internet based meeting tools, among other benefits. A very useful book that is well worth reading.

I bought this book because I wanted a roadmap for improving the effectiveness of the meetings I run at work. This book doesn't help much with that. It is filled with well-intentioned platitudes on how to deal with hostile participants ("remain calm"), resolve conflict ("be open to alternatives"), keep participants on track ("get serious about agendas"), and how to end meetings ("thank the members"). Most of the book's content is just basic common sense, not valuable advice from meeting gurus.

Meeting excellence - The name says it all. I've been working in the field of Management consulting and education for over 30 years and have not come across another book as practical, clear, and frankly useful as Meeting Excellence when it comes to planning, facilitating or following up on meetings where it's important to have the entire group engaged and involved.

Parker and Hoffman have put together not only a framework for planning, executing and evaluating meetings, but have organized it in such a way to make the topics accessible to any one, whether experienced or novice at meeting management.

The subtitle "tools" is accurate. As a framework and comprehensive "toolkit" Meeting Excellence functions extremely well. As a reference for specific topics related to meeting planning and facilitation I know of no other resource as well organized and well written. Specifically, the 33 tools cover meeting issues such as how to prepare an action agenda, how to open a meeting, conduct a teleconference, facilitate a video conference, communicate in a multicultural meeting, make effective decisions, liven up a dreary meeting, close a meeting on a positive note, prepare meeting notes and follow-up on meeting outcomes. These areas are especially important today, when most of a manager's, executive's or individual contributor's time is engaged in meeting attendance or facilitation.

I can easily and assuredly recommend this book for anyone who leads any meetings where discussion, decision making, implementation, change or projects and initiatives need capable, clear and effective leadership. In other works, this book will be valuable to anyone involved in meetings at any level.

This book contains the simple groundrules or tools for effective meetings. I have used these tools to keep meetings short and crisp or I have applied them to longer term projects that required long meetings. Using the tools in Meeting Excellence, I have been able to keep the teams focused and productive. In this era of multi-tasking and ever decreasing lead times, short, focused and productive meetings are key to achieving our corporate goals.

Parker and Hoffman have a written a very needed book. It is a book that everyone who leads meetings or group discussions should keep on their desks. The book provides us with the needed tools to understand and lead effective group discussions. Parker and Hoffman not only tell us what to do but how to do it. Though only recently purcahsed i have already found myself thumbing through the book on several occassions looking for and finding the guidance i have needed. Of particular assistance has been their chapter three on How to Prepare an Action Agenda. Do not let anyone borrow this book it is not likely to be returned.

Parker and Hoffman's newest book, Meeting Excellence is a first-class, practical guide to preparing and conducting meetings. It is a well-organized work that will have high utility for any meeting facilitator.

The book's chapters are heavily cross-referenced and loaded with well researched and proven tips, techniques and templates for setting up, running and evaluating meetings.

Of particular interest in today's complex world are chapters titled, Communicating in a Videoconference, Teleconference Tips, and Achieving Clear Communications in a Multicultural Meeting. They are short, clear and to the point.

Expert facilitators may be particularly interested in two of the entries in the Resources section: What Would You Do? Problem Scenarios for Meeting Facilitators, and Your Final Exam. The latter is a set of 25 multiple choice questions. Instead of the standard answer set you would expect to find at the end of such a quiz, the authors provide answer "clues" that cleverly loop the reader back to relevant chapters.

Even as an experienced facilitator, I found myself underlining and flagging page after page. I've copied check lists and reminders to take with me into important meetings. I keep it close at hand and refer to it often when prepping for my next meeting. Well worth the price and the time it takes to read this book.

Managers spend the majority of their working time in meetings so there is a big value-creation opportunity to make these more effective. Parker and Hoffman are offering very practical and pragmatic tools that can be immediately applied in our day-to-day.
I have personally seen the roll-out of the tools in our organization, its acceptance and impact, and how it became a best practice widely applied.
A must have.

After reading Meeting Excellence I do believe I will be able to get more out of meetings both as a facilitator and as a participant. Chapters such as the one on creating an Action Agenda are very helpful.

Other parts of the book were less relevant to general meeting excellence, such as the chapter on integrating a new team member. I also wished more detail was provided, as sometimes the short chapters read almost like the Cliff's Notes on Meeting Excellence rather than the book itself.

Finally, I can save you the trouble of reading chapter 24: "Serious Fun at Team Meetings?" The answer is, "No."