06/03/2026
Meeting Mastery, Part 2: Ground Rules That Eliminate Sidebars
Most meetings die in the sidebar conversations.
A simple status meeting turns into a solutioning session, then ten minutes later, you've lost control.
Meanwhile, the original purpose of the meeting never gets addressed.
Senior PM Leaders control the room and guide the discussions.
How? They establish a few simple ground rules:
• Stay focused on the primary decision or objective of the meeting
• Capture off-topic discussions in a parking lot
• Ground decisions in facts and data whenever possible
• Every action item leaves the room with an owner and a due date
• Every parking lot item gets an owner and a follow-up plan
A good facilitator isn't the loudest person in the room.
They're the person who keeps the room moving toward the outcome everyone came for.
That's the difference between a meeting that drives progress and one that simply fills the calendar and eats up your team's time and budget.
Part 3 of my Meeting Mastery series.
Coming next: How I use AI to capture decisions, action items, owners, and open questions in real time.
