Meetings ยท Article
How to stop rambling in meetings
Lead with the headline. Most rambling comes from thinking out loud, so the point arrives at the end, after people have stopped listening. Say the one sentence that matters first, then add only the detail people ask for.
Why clever people ramble
Rambling isn't a sign you don't know your stuff. It's usually the opposite. Thorough, careful people want to show their working, so they walk the room through every step before they get to the answer. By the time they arrive, half the room has moved on.
The fix is to flip the order. Decide what you want people to think or do, say that first, and let the detail follow if it's needed.
Practise the key line out loud
Before an important meeting, write down the one sentence you need people to remember. Then say it out loud a few times. It sounds small, but saying it out loud is what makes it come out cleanly on the day. Thinking it isn't the same.
Breath and pace matter here too. If you take a breath before you speak and land the end of the sentence, you'll find it much easier to stop when you've made your point, rather than adding another clause.
A real before and after
A client of mine, an engineer, used to close his updates with "Shall we move on?", which sounded like he was asking permission. When he needed a decision, he framed it as a two-week delay against a ten-week delay, and the actual ask got lost in the numbers.
We worked on putting the answer first. In his next meeting he opened with the recommendation, to defer two requirements to a later phase, and asked one named stakeholder directly whether they supported it. The proposal was approved.
If you want to work on this, a Voice Audit covers how you structure what you say as well as how you say it.
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