Unpopular opinion time: Being given thirty minutes back in your day hurts productivity more than it helps.
And not only productivity, but attitude and emotional resilience, too.
When someone is signed up for a meeting, they’ve opted in, they’ve enrolled in the work you’ve set out to host. They’re mentally prepared (because they know about it) and will have reserved the will power to bring their emotional labor to the meeting.
The problem with ending early is two-fold.
First there’s a feeling of whiplash. When something is going one way and then it quickly redirects. It’s not fun in a car and it’s not fun at work.
The second is that more often than not, those thirty minutes given back don’t get used productively because the person mentally set aside the time to work on your agenda, not a different one, so the time back is processed as down time.
(Funnily, those who can more easily switch to something else and be more productive are the ones who weren’t prepared or fully enrolled in the meeting in the first place.)
My recommendation: If you see the meeting you’re running can end early – don’t. You can achieve much more with a redirection; perhaps playing out the topic of the meeting further downstream or pivoting to a brainstorm. Once people are in your meeting, they are there. The problem arises when the meeting is cut short and they leave. It hurts productivity more than it helps.
Stay Positive & Leaders Lead, They Don’t Cut Meetings Short
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