its important to value everyones opinion and not fall in line with the majority

A top takeaway from this course so far has been the idea to make the meeting a workspace. This could mean allowing time for particiapnts to read the egenda - or filling out forms during the merting with less work added to a growing to-do list. 

I agree that have a specific detailed agenda sent out at least 48 hours to a week in advance with a clearly stated objective to brainstorm, discuss or decide make for the most productive and effective meeting.  I have also found that providing data ahead of time helps to insure everyone comes to the meeting level set on what the problem clearly is or what the data shows. It is always best to decide base on actual data vs feelings,