What One Question Can Move Your Meetings from “We Met – We Talked” to “We Met – We Decided!”?

How often are you in meetings that have a topic(s) but no clear purpose that you are aware of? You Meet – You Talk – then the meeting ends and as you walk out the door, you scratch your head and ask yourself, “Was anything decided?”  Frustrating, isn’t it?  Did you know that you can change this?  You can!  Just by asking “One Simple Question!”

But first:

How would you score your “Current Meeting Effectiveness” for the meetings you lead?

How would you score your “Current Meeting Effectiveness” for the meetings you attend?  

If your meeting scores are +4s or +5s to the right – You are an incredible leader!  I want to join your team!  Will you please share your “Best Practices” for “Meeting Effectiveness” with me?  (actually with everyone)

But if your meeting scores are -4s or -5s to the left, would you like to know one simple question that you can use to move your meetings to the right side of the “Meeting Effectiveness” scale?

In a recent meeting that I was attending, one of the other meeting participants asked a very simple question that had a huge impact on our meeting:  As soon as our meeting got going, she politely asked:

“What ‘Outcome’ are we looking for?” 

As soon as our group settled on the “Outcome” we had traction!  And soon we walked out of the door of that meeting with that “Outcome” in hand!  Score a +5 for “Meeting Effectiveness.”

So the very next time you are part of a meeting that has a topic but no stated purpose, you can serve everyone gathered by politely asking:

“What ‘Outcome’ are we looking for?”