Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions

By John E. Tropman

Book Overview

"Finally, there is a book on meetings that offers concrete tools and techniques to improve the quality of group decision making. In the many executive seminars in which John E. Tropman has presented his research and his recommended approach to meetings, I am consistently impressed with the group′s reaction--that these suggestions can really be applied Alumni have experienced success with Tropman′s ′agenda bell′ for scheduling the flow of the meeting; elimination of ′reports by function′; and use of ′fraction rules′ to organize and prepare for the meeting and structure it. Whether an organization is implementing a Total Quality initiative or an individual is seeking to improve the quality of decision making in meetings, Tropman′s Making Meetings Work is a valuable resource and a welcome addition to the literature on meetings. --Deborah G. Corsini, The Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University "A very detailed and in-depth discussion of what makes meetings work well and what usually makes meetings a waste of time. What is particularly helpful is that the author equally addresses pre and post meeting work, an area which managers may often neglect for the sake of time or expediency, particularly evaluation. What is most interesting though is that, while it does reflect upon what does not work in meetings the emphasis is upon using techniques that have been found to produce excellent meetings." --Maggie McCourt-Mooney in Journal of

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803973594
• ISBN13: 9780803973596
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Buy this book and help stop the pain of bad meetings!

It is amazing what the real cost of meetings are. I'm not just talking about the aggregate cost to the business of the attendees salaries. What about the opportunity cost of the inability of a group to form a decision, let alone a good one? It is within this context that John Tropman describes how to effectively and efficiently manage meetings. Mind you, this is not a book devoted to anecdotes and examples of bad meetings. No, this little gem delivers step-by-step instructions for creating a setting in which successful decisions are made. For example, most people will acknowledge the necessity of having an agenda, but have you thought about how topics should be structured within the agenda to enable quality decisions? When isn't the democratic ideal of one person, one vote a good approach to settle an issue? I was able to immediately use many of the items outlined in this book to improve meetings that I chair. On the negative side, Part V, which is new with the second edition, seemed tacked on and out of place with the rest of the book. A minor point perhaps, but the last few pages were somewhat of a let down when compared to the first part. However, don't let that stop you from buying this book and ending the scourge of bad meetings

Insightful and Useful

I found useful information on every page of this book. Modern business is round after round of meetings. There are too many meetings and far too few that are really useful. Dr. Tropman helps us focus on when and why and HOW to have meetings. He also gives us tools to decide what goes into the meeting and what to leave out. Having wasted too many days of my life in these modern torture cells, this book came as a breath of fresh are. It is not only useful, it is a delight to read and implement.