rainstorming meetings can have up to ten participants. This meeting size should continue to maintain an effective structure, however, idea stimulation from other group members is also necessary. On the other hand, informational meetings may have upwards of thirty participants. More over, formal presentations could have an unlimited number of participants. The third step in conducting effective team meetings concerns planning. Planning will allow the manager to successfully convey his/her message or goals to the team members. Often times when managers to not thoroughly plan a meeting, the participants are overwhelmed with information and may miss or tune out critical and crucial information. A manager should follow certain rules and guidelines in order to make each meeting effective. One of the rules a manager should follow is the rule of halves. This rule states that all agenda matters pertaining to an upcoming meeting should be given to the person responsible for drafting the agenda at least half of the time interval between the last and upcoming meeting. Another rule is the rule of three fourths. This states that packets of information should be given to the participants at the three-quarter point between two meetings. The agenda rule states that agendas should always be written with action words. This will give participants a clear picture of what to expect in the meeting as well as motivation to attend. The rule of sixths states that two thirds of the meeting should be focused on current topics. However, the other third should be divided into two sixths. One of these sixths should be to discuss past meetings and do follow-up. The second sixth should be used to discuss future agendas. This ensures that current topics are not forgotten or derailed. The rule of thirds states that meetings should be divided into thirds. The first third should be a warm-up period, the second should be a heavy work period and the last ...
