Meetings Should Drive Decisions, Not Delay Them - Mindshift Moments
The Moment:
You’re sitting in your millionth meeting of the day, and your frustration is rising. The conversation loops back to the same topic for the third time, still with no conclusion, and the meeting is almost over. Another hour gone. Another decision kicked down the road. You close your laptop, defeated, and wonder, ‘Why do we even bother meeting if we’re not going to make progress?’
The Mindshift:
You’re not alone if your calendar feels like it’s filled with wasted time and missed chances to align, innovate, and make progress. But here’s the thing: meetings don’t have to be this way. If you understand what’s really getting in the way, meetings can be the most powerful tool for driving clarity and momentum.
Zoom out and take a look at:
- Decision Making Patterns: What are the team’s decision-making habits? Do one or two people seem to make all the decisions? Does the real decision get made before or after the meeting? Or by someone else who didn’t even attend the meeting? When people feel their input isn’t heard, they check out. Meetings become rubber stamps instead of problem-solving spaces.
- Meeting Structures: A meeting without clarity—clarity of purpose, outcomes, or next steps—isn’t a meeting at all. It’s a time drain. Without the right structure or facilitation, even the best teams can get stuck spinning their wheels instead of engaging in productive conversation and driving decisions forward.
- A Lack of Psychological Safety: When team members hold back their thoughts, it’s often not because they don’t care—it’s because they’re protecting themselves. Without psychological safety, perspectives stay buried. A productive meeting requires everyone to feel safe enough to challenge ideas, share concerns, and “think” together.
The Strategies:
Shifting how you approach meetings can change everything. Start with these strategies to turn your meetings into a force for progress.
1. Prime the Team for Productive Decision-Making
This seems like a “duh” step, but in the fast-paced environments so many of us work in, we tend to jump right over it. Take the time to clearly communicate the meeting’s purpose and the decision that needs to be made. Send an agenda with specific questions or materials to review in advance and explicitly state the decision will be made during this meeting. This allows the group the time to process, research, and be prepared to contribute meaningfully. By setting expectations upfront, you create a space for intentional, prepared participation.
Did you get invited to a meeting without this clarity? Ask the meeting organizer what decisions they are hoping to make during the meeting and if they can share that with all attendees so everyone can be ready for the conversation.
2. Structure the Conversation for Safety and Innovation
Great meetings don’t happen by chance—they’re designed. And the standard “What ideas does everyone have?” prompt often doesn’t cut it. Start by creating space for individual reflection: ask everyone to jot down their initial thoughts, ideas, or concerns. Pair people up to discuss their thinking, then share their top three insights with the larger group. Use sticky notes (physical or digital) to capture all ideas to ensure all voices are heard. This approach builds psychological safety and invites contributions without immediately putting anyone on the spot. It also primes the team for productive conflict, where ideas compete without personal friction.
3. Facilitate Conflict with Juicy Questions
The best decisions come from productive conflict, not rushed consensus. Be ready with questions that surface hidden assumptions, challenge groupthink, and expand perspectives. Try:
- Which stakeholder groups might disagree with us and why?
- If we knew we’d succeed, what decision would we make right now?
- What perspectives are missing from this conversation?
- What assumptions are we holding, and how true are they really?
- How are we going to make this decision?
4. Prepare to Experiment and Iterate
Sometimes the best decision is recognizing that more information or learning is needed before you can decide confidently. Normalize the idea that decisions are part of an iterative process. Ask:
- What experiments could we run to learn more before we commit?
- What additional data or perspectives might make this decision clearer?
Creating room for exploration doesn’t delay progress; it makes the final decision stronger.
Your meetings can become the space where your team does its best thinking. Every meeting that ends without a clear decision or meaningful progress costs you and your team more than just time; it costs momentum, innovation, and trust.
When your meetings work, you and your team move forward. And that’s a cost you can’t afford to ignore.