Shirley Fine Lee’s RARA meeting management book makes the new year more productive

(I-Newswire) January 23, 2008 - Year after year, business professionals keep going to meetings that are inefficient and not very effective. For the new year, the meeting solution can be simple for both meeting leaders and attendees. The solution is to use the four components of better meetings presented by Shirley Fine Lee in her book "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach." This book is a different kind of meeting management book in that it suggests any meeting can be made better by adding one or more of the four components of the acronym R.A!R.A! Shirley Fine Lee explains how each component does something to provide better results before, during, and after the meeting. The more components utilized by business professionals, the more likely bad meeting change to good ones.

According to "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach", the first RA stands for Roles and Agenda . Assigned roles are very important to successful meetings. The roles should be assigned prior to the meeting so people know which ones they have. If roles were not assigned, then they should be assigned at the beginning of the meeting before going over the agenda. To increase meeting efficiency, the agenda should also be created before the meeting so everyone knows what is expected to occur during the meeting. If necessary, the agenda may be quickly created or revised and then agreed upon at the start of the meeting.

In the book, Shirley Fine Lee explains the second RA as Records and Actions. She explains keeping records and assigning actions are not only for meeting follow-up. Having them visible during meetings can increase effectiveness and productivity during the meeting as well. Records should contain any idea generation, major discussion, and decision making that occurs. Actions should be recorded as they come up and assigned to someone with a due date before the meeting closes.

Frequent use of all four components from the book "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach" should move good meetings to great ones. Although the four components are the foundation of the process diagramed in the book, it is not the entire book. The book can make the next year of meetings even better because it also includes information and forms on preparing for, tracking, and evaluating meetings. Plus at the end of the book, it provides a section on typical meeting problems and how meeting leaders can handle them. Business professionals wanting to make meetings more effective and efficient, should check out the book on www.Amazon.com. Additional tips may be found on the author's site at www.ShirleyFineLee.com.

Company Contact Information
Shirley Lee