Plan the reason for meeting and delegate individual preparation. Haphazardly planned meetings rarely accomplish much. Therefore, before meeting, all team members should know the specific goals of that meeting and how they need to individually prepare for it.

Establish a "team culture" of individual preparedness. Nothing rends a meeting useless faster than lack of members' preparation. Therefore, team members must come to meetings prepared to accomplish that meeting's goals, e.g., completing assigned readings, brainstorming options, etc.

Identify a clear beginning and end time. Waiting around for tardy members can be extremely frustrating for busy people, so teams should establish a policy of punctuality to make the most out of their meeting time. Likewise, meetings that drag on too long inevitably lead to frustration, so setting a clear end time encourages the team to be efficient in the allotted time. If, during a meeting, it appears that the end time must be extended, all members must agree on a different time.

Outline a clear agenda and "stick to it." Working from an agenda at a meeting makes it possible for all members to see what has been and what needs to be accomplished. Sticking to the agenda eliminates discussion of irrelevant topics which waste time and frustrate members.

Resolve each agenda item before moving to the next. If an agenda is realistic, members will feel accomplished as each item is addressed and resolved . Even if members are unable completely to resolve an agenda item, the team should make a decision about the item (gather more information and discuss it at next meeting, make changes, etc.).

Designate the role of each team member and rotate roles frequently. As is typical of human nature, it is common for team members to take on informal roles (e.g., leader, peacekeeper) when in a meeting. It is often useful to play off this natural process by formalizing member roles for each meeting. People develop different points of view of the meeting process and use different skills depending on their roles in the meeting. Therefore, by rotating member roles at meetings, everyone gets a better understanding of each others' points of view.

Roles in a meeting might include:

• Facilitator: Keeps the discussion moving in the proper direction, introduces agenda items and facilitates discussion, remains neutral
• Time Keeper: Sets time limits for agenda items
• Recorder: Record the group's ideas on newsprint, remains neutral
• Gate Keeper: Ensures that everyone in the meeting has a chance to speak. This can be a sub-role of the facilitator
• Devil's Advocate: Brings up alternative points of view so that the group doesn't fall into a "groupthink" mentality and come to consensus too soon
• Mediator: Diplomatically mediates conflicts and differences of opinion