The Meetings Before The Meeting

If you work in a cross-functional setup involving functions such as sales, customer success, product, technology, and finance, you’ll likely relate to this.

Real decisions don’t get made in the meeting. They get made before the meeting.

We often hold meetings to align, brainstorm, or make calls on priorities.

However, if you’re the one seeking a decision and walk in expecting clarity without doing the groundwork, what you’ll get instead is polite noise and a circular debate.

Whether you’re trying to drive alignment or steer the group toward a preferred outcome, the real work is pre-work—engaging key players individually, providing context, understanding concerns, and creating space for buy-in.

Oil the turnstiles before you push the gate.

If you want meetings to move things forward, don’t wait for alignment to appear in the room magically. You have to go create it first before you walk in.