How can we give people a fair swap for their time in meetings?

My research shows that people want ‘a fair swap’ when they go to a meeting.

Crucially relative to the time they give up and the cognitive effort they put in they want something of equivalent value in return.

But instead they often get frustrated that:

• Loud or powerful voices dominate
• Discussions are long winded can be inefficient
• People can end up at cross purposes
• Every meeting is linear and samey
• They don’t get the clear outcomes they need
• They’re driving everything as the host

Scaffolding can help with all of these things.

Scaffolding just means helping EVERYONE contribute better and faster in meetings with some supportive rules.

Rules help everyone know how to contribute.

And meetings are typically linear but scaffolding can make them multi-track so everyone can contribute more and better in less time.

Here are my three go-to scaffolds I use all the time to give people the best value for time I can.