A recent survey by Salary.com found that "too many meetings" was rated the number one time-waster in the office by 47% of respondents. One analysis estimates that the cost of meetings in the US alone is $1.4 trillion per year, equaling close to 10% of the US GDP.

Every day in the US there are fifty-five million meetings, and a substantial percentage of them are inefficient time-wasters. To address this problem of meetings that suck, this book is designed to be a practical guide for managers and leaders who want to maximize the effectiveness of time spent with their teams and colleagues.

This book will help you improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the meetings that you run.

• Status meetings
• Tactical meetings
• Strategic planning meetings
• Problem-solving meetings
• Project team meetings
• Informational meetings
• Social connection meetings

The authors are both facilitators at the world-renowned Center for Creative Leadership where they work with senior executives to help them be more effective in their leadership. In their own businesses they've worked with teams and executives at companies like Subaru, T. Rowe Price, NASA, National Grid, and the US Joint Special Forces University.
By using the methods and techniques in this book, leaders will be able to reduce the amount of wasted time and resources spent on meetings, have more effective and efficient teams, and increase their team's ability to accomplish their goals and objectives.

Jonathan Vehar lives in Greensboro. North Carolina.

Cathi Brese Doebler lives in Buffalo, New York.