??Dear readers,

在往常日子中常常参加各类会议：部分每日会，周会，月会，季度会。可太多时分，花费许多时刻参加会议究竟疑问仍不能处置。如何前进会议功率呢？不管是会议组织者，仍是参加者，问完下面这五个疑问，就可以事半功倍啦。

When business people hear “Let's schedule a meeting,” they react the same as they would when they hear “Let's schedule a root canal（根管医治）.”

Meetings have long been—and continue to be—the Bermuda Triangle（百慕达奇妙三角） of business. In 2004, Patrick Lencioni offered his advice to make meetings more productive in his bestselling book, Death by Meeting.

With all due respect to these accomplished(有造就的) authors, let me offer five additional solutions to that chronic（长时刻的） problem in the form of rhetorical questions that each leader, as well as each attendee, must be able to answer before and after a meeting—but especially during.

1. What's the point? 会议意图？Take a lesson from the rhetorical question teenagers often pose when they interrupt long parental lectures with “…and your point is?” Define the goal or goals of your meeting in advance and state them clearly at the start. Begin with end in mind.

2.How long will this take?会议时长？Set the length of the meeting—in the advance invitation and again at the actual start—then countdown occasionally as the meeting nears its designated end. Conclude promptly at the announced time. If you do not get to all the agenda items, roll them forward to another meeting. At all costs, leave the conference room before the next scheduled group starts peering into the room impatiently.

3.Where are we going?会议议程？Establish a roadmap or an agenda of the items to be covered. Distribute the list in hard or digital copy, write it on a whiteboard or project it on an LCD monitor. Along the way, track the progression.

4.What am I doing here? 会议人物？Every participant should understand his or her role in the meeting and participate accordingly.

5.How are we doing? 会议作用怎么样？At pivotal points（要害点）, pause in the agenda to give each attendee an opportunity to react. Invite challenges and different points of view, get them out into the open（把...揭露戳穿出来）, rather than sweep them under the carpet（把...忘却，掩盖起来）. They may not get resolved, but they are open for discussion.

Answer these five questions and avoid the title of Mr. Lencioni's book—Death by Meeting.