© 1998 Prentice Hall	Legal Disclaimer

If employees were to calculate their time spent in meetings and multiply that by their hourly rate of pay, they would be surprised at the amount of money that their employer spends on meetings. Their employer might be surprised as well! Our time is precious. Daily we are called upon to attend meetings as part of our jobs. We attend meetings to achieve specific objectives. If we are not satisfying these objectives, we are wasting time and money. To ensure that every minute of the meeting is wisely spent, meetings should be as productive as possible. Think about some of the meetings that you have had with other students in order to study for a test or to work on a project together. Have these meetings been productive sessions? Quite possibly you have been frustrated with your group's lack of productivity. What can be done to make such meetings more effective?

Conducting a business meeting takes careful planning. The leader of the meeting should carefully analyze the purpose of the meeting and the needs of its members. Then, techniques to ensure optimal productivity should be employed at each stage - prior to the meeting, during the meeting, and following the meeting.

Click the in the Video Window to view the "Episode 1: Introductory Video." You will see that Pauline has not adequately prepared for her first business meeting. See if you can detect what she did wrong and what she failed to do to ensure that the meeting was as productive as possible.

After watching the video, proceed to the Exercise.