Meetings are wonderful tools for generating ideas, expanding on thoughts and managing group activity．But this face-to-face contact with team members and colleagues can easily fail without adequate preparation and leadership．
Once a meeting time and place has been chosen, make yourself available for questions that may arise as participants prepare for the meeting．If you are the meeting leader, make a meeting agenda, complete with detailed notes．In these notes, outline the goal and proposed structure of the meeting, and share this with the participants．This will allow all involved to prepare and to come to the meeting ready to work together to meet the goals at hand．
Choosing the right participants is key to the success of any meeting．Make sure all participants can contribute and choose good decision-makers and problem-solvers．Make sure the people with the necessary information for the items listed in the meeting agenda are the ones that are invited．
If you are the leader, work diligently to ensure everyone's thoughts and ideas are heard by guiding the meeting so that there is a free flow of debate with no individual dominating and no extensive discussions between two people．When an agenda item is resolved or action is agreed upon, make it clear who in the meeting will be responsible for this．
Meetings are notorious for eating up people's time．Here are some ways of ensuring that time is not wasted in meetings．Start on time．Don't recap what you've covered if someone comes in late：doing so sends the message that it is OK to be late for meetings, and it wastes everyone else's valuable time．State a finish time for the meeting and don't over-run．To help stick to the stated finish time, arrange your agenda in order of importance so that if you have to omit or rush items at the end to make the finish time, you don't omit or skimp on important items．Finish the meeting before the stated finish time if you have achieved everything you need to．
(1)
According to this article, a successful meeting should be ________．
[ ]
A．
held in a clean and bright place
B．
prepared and guided well
C．
participated by all kinds of people
D．
completed before the stated finish time
(2)
The key to the success of any meeting depends on ________．
[ ]
A．
the time of the meeting to be held
B．
where the meeting is to be held
C．
choosing the right participants
D．
the atmosphere of the meeting
(3)
The last paragraph mainly deals with ________．
[ ]
A．
how to take time at the meeting
B．
how to make the meeting shorter
C．
how to summarize at the end of a meeting
D．
how to arrange theimportant itemsof a meeting
(4)
When someone is late for the meeting, a good leader should ________．
[ ]
A．
keep him or her out
B．
repeat what they have just said
C．
go on with their meeting
D．
criticize or punish him or her
(5)
The best title of this article should be ________．
