This book fills that gap. Albert shows many ways to deal with possible problems like attendance; dog and pony shows; data overload; turf warfare and other hazards. Templates are given for various processes relating to meetings including adding items to an agenda for a meeting, meeting agendas, and announcements. As the book points out, you should be sure the meeting is really necessary. Your first step when planning a meeting should be to fill in the blank in this sentence: This meeting will help you to _____________. If you have trouble filling that blank in, the meeting is likely unnecessary. Take the book's "Twinge Test" to determine whether your meetings are required or merely habit.

Use timesavers to get jump starts on meetings. Make sure terminology is defined the same way among all attendees. Use storyboards or copyboards during the meeting to make sure everyone takes away the same information from the meeting. Use "Send Befores" to ensure attendees are prepared for the meeting. Substitute representatives should only be allowed to attend meetings when they have the authority to make decisions. Number lines and pages in all handouts to make them easily referenced during the meeting.

An example of the book's tactics is given below regarding agendas.

Topical agendas are not worth the paper they are written on. Agendas should be either action-based or issue-based. An action based agenda will have items such as:

10:00-10:15 Estimate costs for Database A project

Verbs such as discuss and review should not be used as they are not clear enough.

An issue-based agenda would have items such as:

10:00-10:30 How would choosing Access as the software for the Database A project affect staffing? possibly annotated.

Compare either of these agenda items to the topical agenda item:

Database A project

You can easily see why the other two agenda types are much more conducive to getting things done. It is also helpful to indicate the time allotted to each item on the agenda to keep the meeting on time and on track.

The book has a section on the various roles that are played out in meetings and how to perform these so your meetings stay concise and to the point. The leader of a meeting may play many of these roles and may delegate some to other attendees. One of the key success factors is getting all attendees involved in the meeting. There is even a section on group writing. The book characterizes those that don't get involved as JIC-Ps (jick peas) or just-in-case people who come to meetings "just in case" there might be something useful to them. By using the methods involved these people either get involved in a useful way or stop attending.

By implementing these methods, you will begin looking forward to those exhilarating meetings for the legitimate challenges and solutions they bring to your organization.