Time is a Tyrant - Remember the Bell Curve

" Time is a tyrant" is one of my favorite truisms. The clock waits for no one. Our days are full with scheduled meetings, thirty minutes seems to be the default. We can get a lot done in thirty minutes, if we approach meetings with more of a 'bell curve' strategy... Kicking off with a short intro of the meeting participants, building up the curve to the 'meat of the meeting' (what we hope to achieve) and closing out down the curve to 'next steps'. 

As always, the best meetings are interactive, and everyone should have a voice. At a solution partner meeting earlier in the week, the founder of this interesting business was keen to ' pitch' his product. He missed the bell curve approach completely, and launched straight into his product, without taking a breath. In thirty minutes, he was still going, his colleague had not said a word, and neither had I. At thirty minutes, ting, times up, and I had to take my leave to proceed to my next meeting. Clearly a missed opportunity, all round.

Most of our meetings have a fixed time, remember the cadence of the bell curve, and keep a soft eye on the clock to ensure the best outcomes. And keep in mind those immortal words of Mark Twain , “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” We live in an age where brevity is a most valuable currency. Practice makes perfect.