Coach’s journal · Team practices
A place to begin
For one recurring meeting, ask why you need it, what should remain at the end and how to get there. Record decisions, action owners and deadlines. Review not only duration but clarity, participation and the work that happens afterward.
A meeting can outlive its purpose
You meet every week but leave with different memories of what was decided. Updates, ideas and requests may be mixed together. What result originally made gathering worthwhile?
Different participants may expect different things: a status update or a decision that has been waiting. Hear those expectations before deciding why the meeting takes so long.
Three POP questions
Purpose: why gather? Outcome: what should remain—a decision, ideas or coordination? Process: who needs to participate, with which information and in what way?
Information alone may be shared differently. A choice needing several perspectives may require thinking time and room to speak. A shorter meeting is not automatically a more useful one.
Make the connection to action visible
Record what was decided, who will act and by when. If no decision is possible, name the missing information and next decision point.
Hear the next action in someone else’s words. If the manager must explain everything again afterward, explore what understanding was missing in the room.
Notice time returned to people
Review repeated checks, focus and whose views were heard alongside the meeting’s length. Shortening the meeting may simply move coordination elsewhere.
HR can examine authority and information flow as well as facilitation skill. Removing or simplifying one unclear activity may be more useful than adding another tool.
Questions about this topic
What does POP mean?
Purpose, Outcome and Process: a way to question why a meeting exists, what it should produce and how it will work.
Should every good meeting be short?
Consider the needed result and participant experience too. Rushing can move unresolved work outside the meeting.
What should we record afterward?
The decision, action owner and deadline. For unresolved matters, note what is needed and when the next judgment can happen.