Google Calendar has a setting called Speedy meetings. When it is on, “all your 30-minute meetings will end five minutes early, and longer meetings will end 10 minutes early.”
Microsoft Outlook has a similar setting, “Shorten duration for all events.” It lets users “end your meetings a few minutes early or start late.” Users set one value for meetings shorter than an hour and another for longer meetings. Microsoft says an organization can make this the default for all its employees.
What are we trying to get out of this meeting? — What result should we have when we leave? It is often asked in the first minute.
What’s the ask? — What exactly do you want from us?
Where did we land? — What did we decide?
What’s the takeaway? — What should each of us remember and act on?
Let’s land the plane. — Let us stop discussing and reach a decision.
What’s the bottom line? — Skip the details and give the result.
In the US Congress, a markup is a “meeting by a committee or subcommittee during which committee members offer, debate, and vote on amendments to a measure.” The name refers to marking up, or amending, the text of the bill.
In the House, “at the end of the amendment process, the chair normally entertains a motion to report a measure favorably to the House.” If the motion passes, the bill is “ordered reported.”
“A hung jury is a jury that is unable to reach a verdict by the required voting margin.” The judge can then declare a mistrial.
The protection against double jeopardy does not apply when a mistrial is declared because of a hung jury. The defendant can be tried again. The prosecution decides “if they want to retry the case or drop the charges.”
The jury’s deliberation produces no verdict. If the case is tried again, a new jury hears it from the beginning.
In his short book Read This Before Our Next Meeting, Al Pittampalli sets a standard he calls the Modern Meeting. Such a meeting exists only to support a decision that has already been made. In his words: “In the Modern Meeting, the decision is King.”
He names two good reasons to meet: conflict and coordination. Meetings held only to share information should end. “We’ll cancel the informational meetings, but you must commit to reading the memos.”
Larry Page became chief executive of Google again in April 2011. Kristen Gil, Google’s vice president of business operations, then published new rules for meetings in the company’s online newsletter Think Quarterly. “Every decision-oriented meeting should have a clear decision-maker, and if it didn’t, the meeting shouldn’t happen.”
Such meetings “should ideally consist of no more than 10 people, and everyone who attends should provide input.” Gil wrote: “Most importantly, decisions should never wait for a meeting.”
In January 2012 Business Insider reported the rules under the headline “How Larry Page Changed Meetings At Google After Taking Over Last Spring.” Reports often credit the rules to Page. The published text was written by Gil.
In High Output Management, published in 1983, Intel’s Andy Grove wrote: “A meeting is nothing less than the medium through which managerial work is performed.” He divided meetings into two kinds. In a process-oriented meeting, “knowledge is shared and information is exchanged.” A mission-oriented meeting is held when needed and “is designed to produce a specific output, frequently a decision.”
Grove made the chairman responsible for the second kind. The chairman “must have a clear understanding of the meeting’s objective.” Grove also wrote: “When a mission-oriented meeting fails to accomplish the purpose for which it was called, the blame belongs to the chairman.”
Just to confirm what we discussed… — The first line of an email sent after a call.
To recap our call… — A summary follows, so that both sides have the same record.
Can you put that in writing? — A spoken promise is not yet enough.
Boilerplate. — The standard clauses of a contract. The word first meant the iron plates of a boiler. Later it meant ready-made text that newspapers received on metal plates. Ed McBain used it for legal text in 1965: “The rest of the will was boilerplate.”
The U.S. Army has a standard document for putting a conversation in writing: the memorandum for record. Army Regulation 25-50 says: “Use the MFR to show the authority or basis for an action taken.”
It continues: “Also, use the MFR to document informal meetings or telephone conversations when official business was conducted.”
Justice Felix Frankfurter said: “The Chief Justice is primus inter pares.” The Latin means “first among equals.” Chief Justice William Rehnquist said that his vote “carries no more weight” than the vote of any other justice.
The chief justice still has real power. He speaks first at the justices’ conference and proposes a vote. When he votes with the majority, he decides who writes the opinion of the Court.