Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings that Get Results.

Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings that Get Results. By Glenn Parker and Robert Hoffman. Jossey-Bass, 216 pages. $22.95.

Meetings are the bane of many managers' lives. They drone on, sapping time and energy, and far too often, not enough gets accomplished. No wonder they're perfect fodder for comic strips like "Dilbert."

Glenn Parker and Robert Hoffman want to send out a life raft for those drowning in meetings--and more importantly, for those who set them up and run them. The book's title is really a misnomer: the "tools" are short chapters addressing the wide range of issues that meeting planners encounter. "Tools" must have sounded like a more compelling word to the publisher than "ideas."

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No matter. Parker, a New Jersey-based consultant, and Hoffman, an executive with Novartis, developed the book from a project at Novartis aimed at making meetings more productive. They tackle such issues as planning and facilitating; issuing invitations; using technology such as email, webcasting and teleconferencing; and follow-up procedures. Along the way, they assess the pros and cons of various styles of meetings, as well as explore critical issues such as decision-making, drawing out reluctant participants, dealing with windbags or autocrats and much more.

Written in clear, succinct English with liberal use of bullet points and lists, Meeting Excellence offers a wealth of practical advice about a central issue in every workplace. There are no blinding insights, but the book's scope, simplicity and usefulness make it well worth a manager's time.