Tangents, Details, and a Beaten Dead Horse - Throes of a Meeting
Posted on 1/10/2008 by Rajeev Singh
Let me not even make an assumption that you have never been in one of those meetings where 
some of the participants botched it down. We all have been through those and, most likely, have been guilty of bungling meeting ourselves. That happens - yes, even the most experienced of us get carried away over-explaining the Aha ideas, or sharing war stories and anecdotes and get into details that are not so engrossing to others.
Until Jeff Patton demonstrated a polite way to rescue a hijacked meeting I stood a very high chance of being labelled 'Mr. Nuisance' for abruptly pointing out digression and demanding a move-on. Yes, I am surprised that no one has questioned my emotional intelligence on my face so far.
REMEDY
The panacea I learnt is to use placards. Prepare a set of 3 cards that read, SOLD, TANGENT, and TOO MUCH DETAIL written on one card each. Make sure they are accessible to each meeting participant - prepare multiple if required. And before a meeting ask your participants to raise and display the card to you if they think there's a need. This is a very polite and empowering manner to give feedback, real time. All my meetings have them now, although I haven't been shown one in a while. This, however, should be used with strict ground rules.
GROUND RULES
- Participants should not play with cards during the meeting and will only reach out for them when a use is intended.
- A card show will have to be honored and acted upon by the speaker.
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1 Response to "Tangents, Details, and a Beaten Dead Horse - Throes of a Meeting"
interesting idea...
have you had a look at my comments on using importance/urgency to manage this issue?
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