Dig Deeper: Joel Spolsky's A Little Less Conversation延伸：乔奥司坡奥斯基德少些交谈
How to Run an Effective Meeting: Time Management如何有效召开会议：规划好时间
No matter how detailed of an agenda you e-mail to your entire team, people will go over the time limits. You need to decide on a case-by-case basis whether that's acceptable or whether the discussion should be tabled for another time, but it helps to have systems in place. 不管你在你的邮件中如何向你的团队详化你的日程，人们会忽略时间的限制。你要个案地决定哪个可以接受，是否还需要进一步另找一个时间商讨，因为这有助于建立一套合理的制度。
When a meeting participant starts to pontificate a bit, it's up to you "as the meeting leader to say something like, ‘it looks like we've drifted a bit, can we come back and focus on whatever that agenda item is,'" Parker advises. Another strategy is acknowledging the person's experience with the subject but suggesting the issue be raised at a later time. If it's germane but time is still running out, you should assign a smaller group to either gather more information or move the process along once the meeting is over. 当一个与会者开始目空一切的谈论时，你作为会议主持者应该说点什么像”我们似乎已经有点偏离主题了，我们还是回到我们今天的主要议题上来吧，这取决于你，”帕克建议说。另外一个技巧是肯定这个人在这个主题方面的经验，但是暗示这个议题应该稍后再提。如果它与主题密切相关但是时间不够，你应该给一个小组分配任务以便能搜集更多信息及在会议结束后也能保证推动会议进程。
At Delta, Mastous tries to strike a tone that's simultaneously business-like and light-hearted. There are two clocks in the company's meeting room and "we have a gentleman in our office named Steve Foster, and Steve is extremely anal about being at a meeting on time, getting to the point, covering topics and getting out of the meeting on time because everybody has secondary appointments. We call those clocks Fosters." 在三角服务中心，马斯塔斯试着给人们留下深刻印象，一方面让人觉得轻松愉快同时又像是在做生意。会议室中有两面钟，我们团队中有一位叫斯蒂芬.福斯特的男士。他很讲究认为要准时参加会议、及时进入正题、按时完成会议。因为每个人接下来还有自己的安排。我们把他称为福斯特闹钟。
Despite Foster's passion for punctuality, Mastous is still the one in charge of nipping tangents in the bud. "I want it to be healthy and I want it to be upbeat, and I don't want people to feel like it's martial law," he says. 虽然福斯特对准时很有见地，但是马斯塔斯才是会议的掌控者，他总能防止离题太远。“我希望整个会议过程中氛围良好，积极向上，我不想让人们觉得像是在进行军事管制。”他说。
Another time management question is how often a team should meet and how long they should meet for. This obviously varies but, according to Parker, if you want to maintain a level of concentration and involvement "an hour is probably best, an hour and a half at the maximum without a break." As far as whether a group should gather daily quarterly or somewhere in between, there's a correlation between the scope of the project and the frequency of check-ins. Bigger picture planning meetings don't need to happen as frequently while small group projects might require near constant communication and meetings. 另外时间管理问题是一个团队应多久开一次会议以及一次会议开多久。显然这要因情况而异，对帕克来说，如果你想要达到注意力高度集中，积极参与的水平，也许一个小时最好，最多一个半小时无间断的进行。至于每组是否要每天或是每季度或介于两者之间时聚集，这就得看这个项目涉及的范围广度和需要检查的间隔。较大型的蓝图规划会议不需要经常召开，而小组项目会议则需要不断地会议来沟通交流。
Dig Deeper: How to Organize Your Time and Space
延深：如何组织你的时间和空间How to Run an Effective Meeting: Meetings and Company Culture
如何有效召开会议：会议和公司文化The way a meeting will play out is often reflected in the setting where you choose to hold it. If you choose a round table or circular set-up, it sends the message that everyone is expected and encouraged to participate as opposed to an auditorium or classroom style set-up, in which case employees know to hunker down for a lecture. 选择会议在哪里进行将反映在会议结束的方式上。如果你选择圆桌或是圆状的会议桌，这就是向会员们传递一个讯息那便是希望也鼓励他们积极参与，他们可以像进行演讲一样来表达自己的观点而不是像在进行视听课或是课堂讲演。
Mastous espouses the former type of set-up and he solicits the opinions of every meeting participant as part of the company's consensus-based approach to decision making. While this might sound overly time consuming, it makes sense if you did a good job before the meeting began of weeding out unnecessary attendees. 马斯塔斯很赞成前一种会议的模式并且他把会议上每个人的意见征集起来达成共识从而成为决定的一部分。虽然这很耗费时间，但这是很有必要的，如果你工作到位的话，可以在会前淘汰不必要的人选。
This is also part of the reason why he feels meetings are a great way to introduce new hires to company culture. "I call it the sharing of the DNA," he says. "It's critical for [new recruits] to understand the culture and philosophy of the company and in many cases they're only going to pick that up through meetings."这也是他把会议当做一种很好的引进新雇员到公司文化建设中来的原因之一。他说“我把它称为DNA共享“。对于新雇员来说了解公司的文化与原则是至关重要的，通过会议他们可以有很快的了解。
Dig Deeper: How to Build a Corporate Culture of Trust
延伸：如何树立公司信任文化
How to Run an Effective Meeting: The Meeting Strategies of Great CEOs如何召开有效会议：首席执行官们会议的战略There are as many styles of running meetings as there are companies and CEOs but these three entrepreneurs have particularly interesting approaches to communicating with their staffs:
进行会议有很多种方式，因为有不同的公司，不同的首席执行官，但是以下的三种企业家们有自己特别有趣的方式与他们的员工交流。
Caterina Fake,the co-founder of photo sharing site Flckr and currently runs Hunch a Web start-up and "decision engine." She has pretty strong feelings about meetings and they're not positive. "Interaction should be constant, not crammed into meetings once a week. At Hunch, we don't have meetings unless absolutely necessary. When I used to have meetings, though, this is how I would do it: There would be an agenda distributed before the meeting. Everybody would stand. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone would drink 16 ounces of water. We would discuss everything on the agenda, make all the decisions that needed to be made, and the meeting would be over when the first person had to go to the bathroom."
凯特瑞纳.费克，照片共享网站Flckr的创建者目前在创建Hunch网站和decision engine。她对于会议有很强烈的反感，认为它们积极作用不大。她认为互动应该是一直都有的，而不应该把它仅填塞在每周一次的会议中。在Hunch网站公司里，除非是绝对需要不然不会召开会议。虽然过去我常常开会，但我开会的方式是：会前发放日程表。每个人都可以参加。在开会之前，每个人先喝16盎司的水。我们会讨论日程表上的所有事情，做出所需做出的一切决定，当有第一个人必须去洗手间时，会议就结束了。
Similarly, Mark Cuban, an entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks sees meetings as a waste of time. He runs his whole business via e-mail and estimates that it saves him "five to 10 hours per day. No meetings. No phone calls. Everything is documented so the number of "let's talk again," or "get together to clarify," or "get on the same page" are gone. People learn very quickly to document and get to the point without the "intonation" of trying to sell me that occurs in meetings. I'm a Dragnet type of e-mail guy. Nothing but the facts. Leave the BS for other people."
同样地，马克.库本，Dallas Mavericks的企业家，认为会议是浪费时间。他通过邮件来打理他的生意，据他估计他一天能节省5-10小时。不开会，也不打电话。一切都是通过文件传输，所以所谓的让我们再谈谈吧，一起聚首再商讨下或者统一下意见就免谈了。人们很快就能学会文件传输，立马就可以进入正题而不用考虑在开会时要注意用怎样的语调来表述自己的想法。我是典型的电子邮件虫。出了事情通知别无其他。离开BS是对其他人而言的。
At the end of his company's all-staff meetings, which are held every Monday, Justin Kan, the co-founder of Justin.tv makes sure people haven't been spacing out, and sometimes even he comes up short. "At the end [of the meeting], Mike, my co-founder and our CEO, gives everyone a quiz based on his notes from the meeting. It's just a fun thing, to test yourself and see if you're paying attention. Sometimes, I'll get five out of five answers right; other times, I might get two out of five."
在他公司每周一进行的全体职工大会结束时，简斯町.崁,Justin.tv的建立者确保没有人精神恍惚，有时他会突然中断。会议快要结束时，麦克，我的合作者也是我们的CEO,从他所作的会议记录中给每个人出了道智力测验题。这只是一个小小的题目来检验你是不是注意力集中了。有时，我会得到百分百正确的答案，而其他时候，我可能从五个人中得到两个正确答案。
By Josh Spiro | Aug 4, 2010
