Meeting Commitments

How many times have you walked away from a meeting frustrated at making no progress while hearing the same topics revisited again and again? Unfortunately, that’s not uncommon. The question is, why does this happen?

In a recent survey, 86% of respondents said that team projects suffer because people aren’t committed enough. What can be done to increase their commitment? According to Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, “When team members are able to offer opinions and debate ideas, they will be more likely to commit to decisions.”

Intel Corporation took this insight to heart. They’ve adopted the philosophy that you can go to a meeting and disagree all you want, but at the end of that meeting you will commit and walk out of the room on the same page. To make sure that happens, each discussion stops 15 minutes before the meeting ends so that every person is clear on commitments and can hold each other accountable.

Imagine how much more productive you and your teams would be if you adopted the same practice.