Arnold, a management consultant, facilitator and team expert, writes a newspaper column entitled “Teamwork.” This journalistic background is evident in her crisp prose as she explains everything you ever wanted to know about team meeting such as deciding where to sit, dealing with interruptions, writing on flip charts and creating agendas. If you’ve ever sat in a meeting wondering, “What’s the point?” then this book is for you!

Information about meetings is just one part of team basics. Do some of your team members live in another state? No problem, according to Arnold. She writes about “virtual” teams and an entire section is devoted to technology, explaining voicemail and e-mail etiquette, special tactics for videoconferencing and an explanation of collaborative technology or “groupware.”

Arnold’s approach is honest, hard-hitting and straightforward. Clearly, managers of all kinds have the most to gain from the book. Carol Dennis, Manager of Executive Development and T. Rowe Price affirms that “Team Basics is a must-have for every manager.”

The rest of us can learn something too. The “team” approach has been around for years, but has anyone really explained it in an easy-to-follow, practical format? Arnold designed the book to be “reader-friendly.” Just pick up a copy; the topics are broken down into easily digestible sections of two to four pages with lots of clear headings, charts, and even some highly amusing illustrations by cartoonist Dom Renaldo.