There may be no tradition more widely embraced by busy professionals than the meeting after the meeting.
We barely had time for the meeting, but we absolutely made time to find quiet hallways or text threads to talk about all the things we didn’t actually understand or accomplish during the meeting.
And it’s your fault.
Okay, maybe not every single time. But I’m betting you are an accidental co-conspirator often enough.
One of the biggest catalysts for the meeting after the meeting is confusion about what happened in the meeting.
No one should ever leave a meeting confused about what happened in the meeting.
If you are facilitating a meeting, make it your mission to offer the clearest recap possible and open the floor for questions if anyone needs additional clarity. “Alright, here’s what we just did. Does anyone have any questions about what we just did or what happens next?” A question asked in the meeting saves HOURS of conversation and wasted effort later.
If you are in a meeting where this recap isn’t present, interject it. “Just so I’m clear, [recap the outcome]. Does that capture it?” Someone else in the room will thank you for the summary later.
If you aren’t sure how to formulate a recap because you don’t understand what happened in the meeting, ask for clarification. “I don’t want to waste time later because I misunderstood something, so can you recap what was just decided and clarify what happens next?” Someone else in the room will thank you for posing the questions later.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTION: When you have a question in a meeting, write it down. If you aren’t brave enough to ask it in realtime, pay attention to how often you discover someone else had the same question. Pay attention to what is being talked about in the meeting after the meeting. Could these extra meetings have been eliminated by someone asking a “dumb” question? Feel free to pass this email around…
My free PDF, “The 5 Secrets of Impossibly Effective Teams,” will show you the simple leadership moves that help teams unlock their full potential and deliver outsized results, without burning out. Grab your copy now at geoffwelch.com/secrets