Accelerate Decision-Making in Meetings

In 1962, as the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded, President John F. Kennedy faced the most critical decision of his presidency. With nuclear war looming, Kennedy assembled his Executive Committee (ExComm) for high-stakes meetings. Despite the enormous pressure, Kennedy implemented a structured decision-making process that allowed for thorough discussion while maintaining momentum. This approach, which included setting clear objectives, encouraging diverse viewpoints, and imposing time constraints, ultimately led to a peaceful crisis resolution.

Hopefully, your business doesn't face decisions of such global consequence. Still, the principles guiding Kennedy's ExComm meetings can change our weekly gatherings from time sinks into engines of progress. Research by Bain & Company found that a single weekly meeting of mid-level managers was costing one organization $15 million a year in salaries alone. More alarmingly, executives spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s, according to a study by Harvard Business Review.

With so much invested in Weekly Meetings I'd suspect it's wise to make the best use of the time together. Here are a few ideas on how to accelerate that decision-making:

1. Craft Decision-Centric Agendas

Just as Kennedy's ExComm had clear objectives for each meeting, your agenda should highlight specific decisions to be made, not just topics for discussion. This subtle shift transforms the meeting's focus from endless debate to actionable outcomes.

Imagine your agenda lists "Q4 Marketing Strategy" as a discussion item. This vague topic invites meandering conversation. Instead, reframe it as "Decision: Select primary channel for Q4 campaign - social media blitz or influencer partnerships?" This clarity primes participants for decisive action.

A study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that teams with specific, challenging goals outperformed those with vague or easy goals by up to 16%. By framing agenda items as decisions to be made, you're setting those specific, challenging goals for your meeting.

Execution Tip: The clients I coach are either running Scaling Up or EOS Traction as a framework for their Weekly Meeting / L10. Therefore, during the week, I suggest each Leadership Team member review the issue list at least once to add new content or clarify how issues are listed and ranked.?

2. Encourage Decisive Action

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy actively encouraged dissenting opinions but also pushed for clear recommendations. He understood that perfect information was impossible and decision-making often required acting on the best available data.

In the military, there is a principle there is a priority to decision-making

1) Make the right decision

2) Make the wrong decision

3) Indecision

In leadership contexts, decisive action is often considered better than no action. This, when paired with an Act-Decisively-and-Adjust Philosophy, aligns with the idea that it's better to act and then adjust as necessary. A decision that turns out to be wrong can often be corrected, but failing to decide can lead to irreversible consequences. An obvious caveat to this is around high-stakes, high-risk, or safety-related decision-making where the wrong decision could be injury or death.?

In your meetings, encourage participants to voice opinions and make decisions without fear. When you sense the conversation circling, step in with a summary and push for a decision or, at the very least, the next action. For instance: "We've covered each marketing channel's main pros and cons. Based on our discussion, I'm leaning towards the social media blitz. Does anyone have strong objections or critical information we haven't considered?"

A report by McKinsey found that companies with fast, high-quality decision-making processes were twice as likely to report above-average financial returns compared to their slower counterparts.?

Execution Tip: Introduce a "decision deadline" for each agenda item. If consensus isn't reached by this point, the designated decision-maker (often you, as the leader) makes the call based on the information presented. This prevents analysis paralysis and keeps the meeting moving forward.

3. Ruthless Timeboxing

Time was a critical factor during the Cuban Missile Crisis, with each day increasing the risk of nuclear war. Kennedy used this pressure to drive focused discussions and rapid decision-making. Timeboxing - setting strict time limits for each agenda item - ensures discussions stay focused and forces the group to prioritize what's truly important.

Execution Tip: For a 60-minute meeting with three main decisions to be made, allocate 18 minutes to each item, leaving 6 minutes for wrap-up and next steps. Use a visible timer during the meeting. When time expires, either make the best possible decision with available information or agree on a specific follow-up action (e.g., "Three of us will meet tomorrow at 2 PM to finalize this decision after Jane runs the additional numbers we discussed.").

4. Watch for Branches

One of the biggest time-wasters in meetings is when discussions "branch"—starting with a focused topic and then meandering into related but different issues. Before you know it, the team is four topics removed from the original discussion, with no clear decision in sight. This is where leadership team members need to be vigilant and steer the conversation back on course.

Example: Imagine the team is discussing a marketing campaign, and someone is concerned about the company's overall brand messaging. This leads to a side discussion on rebranding, shifting to a debate about product positioning. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a quick decision about a specific campaign has evolved into a broader, unfocused conversation.

Execution Tip: To prevent these branches from derailing the meeting, team members should practice active listening and recognize when the conversation starts to diverge from the agenda. A simple intervention might sound like, "This is an important topic, but it feels like we're moving away from the original discussion on the marketing campaign. Can we table the rebranding conversation and refocus on the campaign decision?" This approach acknowledges the importance of the branched topic while ensuring the current decision point is addressed first.

Another tactic is to assign someone to be a "branch watcher" during the meeting—someone who is specifically tasked with monitoring the discussion for potential diversions. If a branch is identified, this person can diplomatically suggest returning to the original topic or placing the new topic in a "parking lot" for future discussion.

Remember, the goal isn't to rush through decisions recklessly but to create a structured environment where decisions can be made confidently and efficiently. As Kennedy demonstrated during one of history's most perilous moments, effective decision-making can lead to powerful outcomes.?