You know the meeting. Everyone does.
The one where you spend 45 minutes in a room discussing something that could have been decided in two minutes by one person.
This meeting has no clear owner. No clear decision. No clear outcome. It exists because nobody wanted to be the one to make the call alone.
So everyone meets. Everyone shares their perspective. Nobody disagrees. The meeting ends with "let's circle back."
And nothing changes.
Why This Meeting Is Expensive
45 minutes × number of attendees. That's your cost.
If you have 8 people in that room earning an average of $60/hour, you just spent $360 on a meeting that produced no decision.
Multiply that by the number of "let's circle back" meetings your team holds in a week. Now you're talking real money.
But the real cost isn't the time. It's the signal it sends: decision-making is collective, not individual. Which means nothing gets decided quickly. Which means everything slows down.
The Fix
Give every meeting a single owner. Not "the team." Not "we." One person.
That person is responsible for:
- Defining the decision before the meeting
- Making sure the right people are in the room
- Ending the meeting with a decision or a specific next step
If a meeting doesn't have an owner, it doesn't happen.
The Rule
If a decision can be made by one person, don't schedule a meeting. That person just decides.
Meetings are for decisions that require multiple perspectives. And even then, the goal is to get to a decision faster, not slower.
Your next "let's circle back" is an opportunity to make a decision right now. Take it.
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