Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Create an Agenda

You should ideally have an agenda that is distributed to members in advance of the meeting. Expect to be challenged on the agenda either directly (e.g., “If you don't mind, I want to bring up x, y, and z”) or indirectly (e.g., “Don't you think we should talk about x, y, and z before we do this?”). The best way of handling this is to create a postdiscussion agenda and explain that there may be time for these issues after the scheduled meeting.

Table A2-1. Meeting Ground Rules

Everyone stays for duration of meeting Form an agenda and stick to it Form a time line and stick to it No “new business” No semantic/philosophical discussions No “let's call for more information” (decision avoidance) No evaluation of ideas until evaluation period ...