Conducting Productive Meetings

Successful leaders have excellent communication with their team and stakeholders. Learn strategies used by highly effective leaders who have led teams to innovate. Eight innovative leaders whose work has made an impact nationally and internationally and seven K-12 leaders who have amazing track records share how they communicate with their team and stakeholders. The author also shares her insights on leading a statewide professional development project in Nevada. A leader must structure activities such as meetings and informal interactions to create optimal conditions to generate and refine ideas. Readers will gain specific strategies to use in meetings to move ideas from the brainstorming stage to more refined ideas that result in innovative theories, products or services. Considering the needs of the customer and engaging them in the design process is an important part of innovating. Readers will also learn how to structure meetings and activities to generate and refine ideas. The author also presents a framework that is backed up by research in business and creativity.

Conducting Productive Meetings perfectly guides the young researcher on innovating, leading, and managing large, transformative research projects through documented practices from the top minds in the field. This book should be required for all principal investigators, serving as a trove of wisdom on how to assemble, inspire, and listen to your team. Lamberg’s interviews and case studies of influential mathematics education projects (including her own Nevada Mathematics Project) show that true innovation isn’t accidental. Innovation happens only through thoughtful planning, organization, and creativity that Lamberg deftly guides the reader through., Conducting Productive Meetings is a practical guide to the development of leadership. In this book, Prof. Lamberg lays out effective team-building and project management techniques for conducting the difficult business of innovation in education. Three key differences mark this guide as different from typical management texts. First, the importance of supporting the personal ambitions and aspirations of team members insures that members work synergistically to accomplish their own goals. Second, Prof. Lamberg places vision front and center of this book. Lastly, she emphasizes what engineers call, “User-centered design” as a principle for making sure that a project works for somebody. Innovation, particularly in education, is futile without incorporating the end-user, the Voice of the Customer, if you will. Ultimately practical, this guide supports real educators trying to make a powerful difference in the lives of learners. This book is a must read for education professionals intending to make systemic change.

Dr. Teruni Lamberg is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Nevada. She has held many leadership positions and was the Principal Investigator of the Nevada Mathematics Project. To learn more about Dr. Lamberg, check out her website: https://www.optimizedlearning.net/.