Run the Room

We decided this last week. Didn't we?

↓

The clearest sign a meeting is ending is the sound.

Forty laptops clamshelling shut within about four seconds of each other, like a flock of something startled off a wire.

Then comes the over-thanking: "thanks so much, everyone, really great!" Followed by the shuffle of people who mentally left ten minutes ago, and the slow drain of digital participants.

Bet on it: two Tuesdays from now the same agenda item will be back, wearing a slightly different hat, and no one will quite be able to say what we agreed the first time.

A meeting is won in its last ninety seconds.

Anyone can open one. The person who closes it—who says out loud what got decided, who owns what by when, and why it matters—becomes the leader of that room, title or no title.

Most people skip it. Closing feels administrative, even a little presumptuous—who am I to sum up? But if you leave in a cloud of purposeless haze, next week will be the pits.

Try this

At your next meeting, anticipate the fade and step into it. Say:

a) "Before we go..."

b) List what was decided

c) List who has what by when

d) Close with a sentence tying it back to the big picture. Here's why it matters.

🌿 90 seconds. You'll thank yourself next week!

Need more authority?

Closing the room is one of four simple ways to make a meeting move instead of just meet. We cover all of them in the six-week Run it Sprint:

Let's begin

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