Harvard Business Review contributing writer Amy Gallo quizzed Paul Axtell, author of “Meetings Matter” and Francesca Gino, a Harvard Business School professor, on how to run better meetings:

There are many different kinds of meetings–the brainstorming session, the announcement, the decision-making meeting– but here are some good general rules for running an efficient meeting:

1. Everyone comes prepared
Before the meeting, distribute an agenda and have the participants email everyone their background material. Don’t waste valuable meeting time reviewing data everyone should have already seen.

2. Everyone contributes
Prime the attendees to offer their opinions. If you don’t want their input, they don’t need to attend.

3. Everyone is focused
No devices, no multi-tasking. If possible, participants should remain standing.

4. Everyone is concise
Chitchat is fine until the meeting starts, then stick to the subject at hand.

5. Everyone you need (and no one you don’t)
Keep the meeting as small as possible. Productivity goes down when you have more than seven people in the room.

via the Harvard Business Review