Have you been in an important meeting during which you sat on the edge of your seat, trying to jump in at the right time, only to – when you finally do – get the floor swept away again by someone else? This is stressful and anxiety-provoking, and these emotions have the negative effect of impeding our best thinking.

If meetings have been a drag in 2021, and you're resigned to the fact that there are too many, the five tips below will help you make your meetings more productive and efficient so you can have fewer of them.

Relaxed attentiveness is what you’ll see in a team that is doing its best thinking together. Team members exhibit a state of relaxation, not anxiety, and a calm attentiveness — they’re not multitasking.

I am just coming off facilitating a virtual offsite for an executive leadership team where I'm reminded of how much wisdom a group inherently contains.

When my daughter attended her first preschool, the almost- and barely-three-year-olds would, upon arrival, take a photo of themselves that had been glued to a magnet and place it in either the 'yes' or 'no' column to a question of the day.

I’m leading a webinar tomorrow called Mastering Great Meetings, so meetings are on my mind today. And if you know me, you know that being a professional facilitator makes me a true snob when attending other people’s meetings!