Tangent alert

Keep your meetings from getting derailed with these 2 techniques, from Gino Wickman’s Traction.

In his consulting work, Wickman has observed teams that go on as many as ten (!) tangents while discussing a single issue.

“Sales are down, we have to increase sales.”

Then, someone brings up the salespeople and what they are doing.

From there, they discuss how one of the salespeople is a problem.

This leads to the subject of sales and accounting not getting along.

Then it’s talk of outstanding invoices.

The next thing you know, you’re talking about letterhead.

When this happens in your meetings, you don’t have to stand by and watch everyone waste time and energy.

Simply draw attention to the fact that the group has strayed from the topic at hand.

One tactic Wickman uses is to quietly stand up and write the definition of tangent on the whiteboard:

“Tangent. noun. A completely different line of thought or action.”

That gets people’s attention.

If this doesn’t work, he will simply shout out: “Tangent alert!”

Either way, he keeps an “issues” list to record the issues to be discussed at a later time.