Take time to discuss three simple questions:
What do we need to do more of next time we meet?
What do we need to do less of next time we meet?
What do we need to continue to to?

Another nice short way to bring a meeting to closure is what I learned as the "Gestalt" one word about how you're feeling right now. It gets you a good, quick read of the energy in the room when folks are either pushing the end of the time for the session and / or it feels right to give things a light touch at the end.

Another thing I have done is to have the group review the outcomes for the meeting and the norms for the meeting. Have small groups have some quick buzz groups about both these questions and use them as a check out by going around the room and hearing what everybody has to say. Then as a group brainstorm what they can do next meeting to improve on these further. I think the thing to stay away from here, and it's something I learned from you Dick and Emily, is to frame this around Pulse Checks not evaluations. By shifting the language you help people get out of critic mode about what they liked or didn't like (not much you can do about that anyway after the fact). A pulse check is just that....information for the whole group by the whole group. Hopefully the patient is still alive! ; )

There's one more idea here that I've used a lot that has been helpful at the end around pulse checks: Asking the question to what extent did we meet the needs you had of this meeting/our outcomes/how confident are you that we're going to move forward with our commitments/q's like that. Then you put a ten point scale at the bottom with 1 representing "In a million years" or something like that and the ten becomes "It's a done deal" or something like that. Then you also make sure to ask "Why did you mark it where you did?" This set of questions get you really good data about not only how the meeting went but people's confidence in themselves and each other. Coupled with a question about how do we maintain our momentum gives you clues about not just next steps but as importantly, what do you need to be doing to support the agreed next steps so that they can actually be implemented. Well intentioned people without support are just that -- not successful, but well-intentioned.

After the group has come to a decision on the actions to take, creating action plans with the who , what , when and where is helpful so we know what is next.