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Business Meeting Manual

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In business settings, people spend an inordinate amount of time and energy in meetings. Regardless of whether the setting is a corporate organization, a non-profit entity, or a small business, meetings are a common way for individuals to come together to share information or to make decisions. In Kirkpatrick’s (1987) book, How to Plan and Conduct Productive Business Meetings, he seeks to dissect the meeting and then reconstruct it in a more productive manner; Kirkpatrick (1987) also provides insights into areas of communication and into how I can create more productive meetings in my workplace.
Summary of Book According to Kirkpatrick (1987), “this manual has only one objective: to help you conduct more productive meetings” (pg. x); …show more content…

When participants argue during meetings, it causes a distraction and thus can lead to loss of productivity. Kirkpatrick (1987) offers the advice to handle this type of conflict by clarifying objectives early on in the meeting (pg. 87). In this way, the leader can refer back to the objectives when participants get off track. Also, when conflict begins, Kirkpatrick (1987) states to “emphasize the points of agreement, or frankly ask that personalities be left out” (pg. 92). In this way, the leader can begin to diffuse the emotional conflict associated with much conflict.
Critical Review
Kirkpatrick’s (1987) book is a well-written step-by-step manual to create more productive meetings. One of the book’s strengths is that it is easy to read and offers specific insights for leaders to use when hosting a meeting. As a weakness, the book is over-simplified and does not address the dynamics that sometimes occur in group settings. This being said, however, Kirkpatrick accomplishes his objective: how to host a productive meeting, assuming, that is, that the reader follows the guidelines outlined in the book.
“Kirkpatrick is an author, consultant, teacher and speaker” (Kirkpatrick, 1987, pg. 293). He is also an educator, and as such, he used a plethora of resources and evidence in his book to support his positions on hosting productive meetings. For instance, he uses an expert on time

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