My boss puts it very aptly at the start of each meeting, ‘If you have nothing interesting or important to say, say nothing’.

One simple line from him sets the tone of his expectations from the attendees as to how the meeting is to be conducted. The benefits of this succinct but profound message were reaped in the form of:

• A highly focused audience oriented towards the goal and not the player
• To the point and relevant conversation keeps the agenda moving
• Shorter meetings result in greater retention by participants
• More takeaways from the meeting
• Makes it difficult to digress from the task at hand

Scoreveing compelling cheers, dispelling fears