Meeting Excellence is a comprehensive resource that provides a wide range of ready-to-use tools that have been developed and tested by a meeting initiative within Novartis Pharmaceuticals. It is based on years of research observing team meetings, examining existing meeting documents, and conducting a number of intensive individual interviews in the U.S. and Europe. This important book offers the information and tools needed to prepare, facilitate, and follow up on all your meetings. Step by step, Meeting Excellence shows how to

• Create an action-focused meeting agenda
• Ensure that everyone participates in discussion
• Deal with disruptive and inattentive people
• Develop a climate of trust among meeting participants
• Create and deliver effective meeting presentations
• Stay on track to achieve your meeting goals
• Achieve clear communication during a multicultural meeting
• Liven up a dreary and unproductive meeting
• Close your meeting on an upbeat and positive note
• Get action on team action items
• Improve meeting communications with line management
• Evaluate your meeting quickly and effectively
• Choose among various web-based meeting tools

Glenn M. Parker is president of Glenn M. Parker Associates and has helped create high-performance teams at a diverse range of organizations, from pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and?Merck, to industrial organizations such as Pratt & Whitney and Sun Microsystems, to government agencies such as the Coast Guard,?and the National Institutes of Health. He is author of Cross-Functional Teams (Jossey-Bass), which has sold over 100,000 copies in various editions.

Bob Hoffman is Executive Director for?Organizational Development in the Oncology Business Unit of Novartis Pharmaceuticals.