Info BEFORE the meeting!

If leaders want meetings to be more productive, they ought to require that documents and other presentation materials be distributed at least 24 hours prior to the session. They then must hold people accountable for reviewing these documents before attending the meeting. In so doing, leaders will cultivate much more robust dialogue during meetings and avoid lengthy PowerPoint dog and pony shows. People can offer useful comments and critiques, because they have had time to digest the information. Team members will not be reacting on the spot to something they have never seen. It takes discipline to accomplish this type of meeting norm, but it can be done.