I finally stopped asking 'what do you think' first in my team meetings

For years, I'd start every project chat by asking my team for their open thoughts, thinking it was the best way to get ideas. The problem was we'd spend 30 minutes just going in circles. About two months ago, I tried something new: I now send a one-page summary with three clear options 24 hours before we meet. In our last meeting about the Q3 goals, we picked a direction in under 10 minutes because everyone had already seen the facts. The prep work makes the actual discussion way more focused. Has anyone else switched up how they run a basic meeting and seen a big difference?

4 comments

4 Comments

joseph_hart3mo ago

Yeah that's so true... it's like giving people a blank page is just asking for chaos. The best talks happen when everyone's already on the same page to start.

spencer1991mo ago

read something a while back about how open-ended prompts in meetings actually make people more anxious, not more creative. totally clicked when i saw this.

stone.thomas1mo ago

Total chaos" is exactly right. I sat in a meeting last week where the facilitator just threw out "so what do we want to talk about today?" and you could feel the panic in the room. Nobody wants to be the first one to speak and risk picking the wrong thing. The silence was painful.

jadeg813mo ago

Define being on the same page. Does that mean agreeing, or just sharing a common goal for the talk?