Meeting Hero: Plan and Lead Engaging, Productive Meetings

by Tom LaForce

So few lead productive meetings that when it does happen, people notice. To make your meetings shine, you’ll need two things: A solid plan and facilitation ability. Meeting Hero is your call to action. It will teach you to tackle hard problems, tough crowds, and tight timelines with extraordinary skill and courage. It will prepare you to run this meeting . . .

Attendees are on time and prepared. You feel the group’s energy. Everyone contributes to the conversation. Ideas emerge. A vigorous, respectful debate ensues. The group quickly makes its decision. Participants can’t believe how much they accomplished. You notice their pride and have no doubt they will fulfill their commitments.

Tom LaForce has amassed more than 30 years of facilitation experience. As an employee, consultant, and volunteer; he has led thousands of meetings for business, government, nonprofit, and community groups. He has learned what works, and wrote Meeting Hero to pass those lessons on to you.

LaForce provides specific and practical techniques you can apply to your meetings right now. He explains how to make sure your meetings have a compelling purpose, achievable deliverables, and a detailed plan. You’ll learn to consider constraints, potential problems, the invite list, and even the room layout.

Next he tackles every aspect of running a successful meeting. He tells you what to do and say in all sorts of challenging circumstances. You’ll learn to spark creativity, deal with troublemakers, stay on track, and work through conflict to reach a decision. As a bonus he includes a chapter on how you can improve meetings that someone else is leading. Each chapter closes with practice exercises to reinforce the lessons and build your confidence.

Effective meetings are rare. They are also completely within reach. It’s a powerful skill that, when mastered, can boost your career. Your opportunity to be a meeting hero has arrived. Get your copy now and begin to lead your organization’s best meetings.

Genres: Management

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2014

About the author

For more than 25 years, Tom LaForce has survived too many painful meetings. They were long, slow, and didn't produce anything of value. He decided he could do better and learned to run meetings that were fast, focused, and fun.

Through his consulting business he has led thousands of meetings as a facilitator for hire. He also leads seminars to teach meeting leadership skills.

He has always had a blog in which he shared meeting success strategies. His book, Meeting Hero, is his latest effort to spread effective meeting practices far and wide. He wants to build an army of heroes to help him wipe wasteful, boring meetings from the face of the earth.