You’ll be surprised how many meetings you have that are open-ended. When this happens, it can draw out the discussion and actually prevent a conclusion from being reached.
People will anchor themselves to an end time when it is set, which helps concentrate the discussion and keeps the agenda moving forward.
If the time set is too short, it’s important to address the next steps for the discussion at the scheduled end time. We’ve all been in a meeting where we’ve switched off after the clock ticked past the scheduled end time, so it’s good practice to get buy-in from the group about continuing the meeting rather than just pushing through.
So when scheduling or hosting your next meeting, give as much attention to when the meeting should end as to when it should start.
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