As any instructor will tell you, one of the best things about teaching is learning from your students. It happens in some way, big or small, every time you get in front of people who are expecting to hear how to do it “right.”
Of course, there is no “right” a lot of the time. In my classes, for example, I instruct and inform, but I also facilitate discussions about the options, and the students decide what’s going to work for them.
This brings me to the recent Facilitation Skills Workshop class I taught. In this class, we learn about different facilitation techniques and then the students do the work; they actually facilitate each of the 12 sessions throughout the class.
In a recent 
Projects cross cultural boundaries probably as often as not anymore. How many people either go to other countries to work on projects, find themselves working with team member from other countries here in the US, or work with virtual teams that include people from other places? 
Thought given to key elements of the meeting ahead of time can make for a more effective meeting. Communication of those things insures that everyone arrives at the meeting with a shared understanding of why they are there and what they need to accomplish.
