How to Keep Meetings From Going Off Track

Ultimize. At some point in almost every meeting, the conversation starts to drift. Not always in an obvious way. It usually begins with something that sounds perfectly reasonable. Hey, that's reasonable. Let's talk about that. Someone raises a related issue. Someone adds more detail. Maybe it's just a tad more detail than necessary. Then someone brings in a new idea that isn't even a part of the decision. And if you don't step in early, the meeting slowly moves away from its purpose. So here's the key. You don't wait until the meeting is completely off track. You correct it the moment it starts to drift. I've seen this happen in meetings where someone like Rowett brings up a valid concern, but it's not relevant to the decision. Another person builds on it. A third person adds an example. 5 minutes later, the group is deep, and I mean deep, into a discussion that has nothing to do with what they came to decide. At that point, it's very hard to pull the meeting back. But if you step in early, it's easy. You say something like this: That's useful, but it's not what we're here to decide right now. Let's come back to the main point. That one sentence resets the direction, and it's done in a polite, professional way. You're not really going to upset anyone. If you say it that way. You're not going to say, hey, don't be a moron, that's not relevant here. You're not calling people names. You're not making anyone feel bad. You're simply directing the conversational flow. Another tool you can use is capturing off-topic ideas. If something is important but not relevant, don't ignore it. Write it down. Say, we'll capture that and come back to it after this meeting or in a separate discussion. That way people feel heard. Oh, my ideas are good. They wrote it down. It's not offending anyone, but the meeting stays focused. The biggest mistake people make is being too passive, too nice. They notice the meeting is drifting, but they hope it will correct itself like magic. Guess what? It won't. Meetings don't naturally return to focus. They continue in whatever direction they're allowed to go. So you have to be willing to step in. That's right, you, you got to do it early and often. That doesn't mean being aggressive or sounding aggressive or mean. It means being clear. You are responsible for the direction of the meeting. That's right, You— it's your job. And every time it starts to drift, you have to bring it back. That's how you keep the meeting productive.