Last week, I shared a simple way to ensure your meetings end on time. It was:
- Ten minutes before the scheduled end of the meeting…
- …say “I’m conscious of time”
- People will (1) look at their watch and (2) stop speaking for a second
- And you immediately say “I know we have a Hard Stop in ten minutes. So can we quickly agree our actions before we go?”
You then have ten minutes to agree actions, and end on time.
But what about all the time before this wonderful ending? How do we ensure the meeting is efficient? Here are four handy phrases to use:
- If an agenda item’s taking too long, say “I’m conscious of time. We have six agenda items and we’ve already spent 20 minutes on this first one”; and/or
- If people are getting side-tracked, use the word “offline”. “This is a useful chat. But it’s going into too much detail. Let’s take that detail offline”
- If you want to shut someone up, say this as a question – “Quick question?” They’ll ask what your question is. And then say your fave of #1 (“I’m conscious of time”) and #2 (“offline”)
- To ensure every agenda item has an action, always ask – before moving to the next item – “What are our actions with what we’ve just agreed? WHO is doing WHAT, by WHEN?”
Having Magic Phrases like this doesn’t always work, of course. But it gives you a chance. Without them, you’ll just watch everyone banging on – for ages – about stuff you don’t care about. And that’s just awful…
Action Point
Use these – or similar – phrases in your next meeting! And then the next. And then the next…