Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Appendix 1. Managing Meetings: A Toolkit

The work of teams largely proceeds through meetings. Whether they are regularly scheduled or called out of need, effective meeting management is a key to success. Furthermore, people spend a lot of time in meetings. The average number of meetings jumped from 7 to 10 per week, based on surveys of business professionals between 1981 and 1995 by Mosvick and Nelson, authors of We've Got to Start Meeting Like This! (1995). Typical executives spend two-thirds of their time in scheduled meetings, and the amount of time managers spend in meetings increases with organizational level. Middle managers spend about 30 percent of their time in meetings; top management spends about 50 percent of their time in meetings. ...