Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

CHAPTER 11

Establish Ground Rules

Setting guidelines at the beginning of a meeting encourages everyone’s participation and keeps the conversation on track. The guidelines don’t have to be rigid or overly formal but should serve as a set of shared expectations for behavior that reflect your time constraints, the size of your group, and your meeting’s intentions and goals. For example, your group may decide to let only one person speak at a time, not allow interruptions, set time limits on contributions, table issues that aren’t easily resolved, limit conversations that stray from the topic at hand, and make sure that everyone is heard from.

If you’re meeting with the same group of people on a regular basis, the group can develop these guidelines ...