Re: "Meetings should always have a written agenda and a clearly stated amount of time that will be spent on each agenda item."

I have been to too many meetings where management used the agenda to control input and skew decisions. An agenda is okay, but free time should be left for members to bring up their own concerns.

M. Ted, I enjoyed reading your wise insights.

Other thoughts:

1. The creative person is unpopular. Most people respond to a creative idea by ignoring or ridiculing the creative person. But sometimes that person's idea prevails in time.

The successful (you might say crafty) creative person learns to feed her ideas to a popular person, who serves as mouthpiece.


2. There are people who think in pictures and people who think in words. Most of us are a blend of the two types, but if you have two individuals, one of whom thinks almost entirely in words, and another in pictures, they will irritate and despise each other without knowing why. Understanding the differences between them can help.

3. At the end of every meeting, do two things.

a. Review the list of who-is-doing-what. It's too easy for a member to forget about or misunderstand what s/he is supposed to be doing.

b. Set the time and place for the next meeting.