So I said to my client: “OK I’ve known you all a while now, I’ve been observing how you work together. I’ve heard what you have to say about the past, and what you say you want to create in the future. And I have a suggestion for you. I have an idea, which I think, if you implement it, will have the most dramatic effect on the quality of your organization I can imagine.

Here’s the idea.

That you never hold another meeting in your company – internally or externally-focused – without keeping three minutes of silence at the start of it. Three minutes. Not two. Or one. Three.”

My client said nothing. Silence.

I said “Let me break that down for you.

The first minute is to settle down, to settle in to the conversations you are about to have in your meeting. Currently you arrive in your meetings with all the baggage of the day with you, all that stuff, all that stress. All the actions you already need to take after this meeting has finished before it has even started. When in fact all you have is this current meeting, this current conversation about to emerge, and all the possibilities it might create. So the first minute is for you to get present. To slow down. To be here. To show up. In all ways.

The second meeting is to use that feeling of being present to focus on you. How can you bring the best of yourself to this meeting? Who do you need to be – not later, not in the future, but now – to serve the agenda of this meeting and have it be the best it can be. So the second minute is for you to clarify how you want to contribute.

Then there’s the third minute. The third minute is for you to shift your attention to the other people who have given up their time to be here with you to create something together. Their minds may be full of having to be at the meeting to and ought-ing to be at the meeting, but the fact of the matter is that if they really didn’t want to be here, they’d have found a way to not be. Just like you. And nevertheless here you all are. All that capacity and contribution ready to be unleashed. These people who will – despite what you think of as your own private agenda – help you to make it happen. Without whose help nothing will happen. So the third minute is to acknowledge and appreciate – silently but with intention – your colleagues. Your company.

And when that third minute is complete, then you’ll be ready to begin your meeting.”

So that’s what I said.

And my client said “…