Steered a site walkthrough last week that actually stayed on schedule

I was running a walkthrough for a new commercial build outside Austin last Thursday. We had 14 subcontractors and the GC all in one spot, and somehow we wrapped 20 minutes early. I'm still not sure how I pulled it off, but I think keeping a printed agenda and sticking to it helped. Has anyone else found a trick that keeps these meetings from running long?

3 comments

3 Comments

schmidt.blake1mo ago

Wow I used to be totally against printed agendas for stuff like this, figured everyone would just check their phones. But now I'm thinking maybe old school is the way to go. I did something similar on a smaller job last month where I literally wrote out the timeline on a whiteboard as people walked in (helped that it was only 8 guys). Having something physical to point at when people start rambling about unrelated plumbing issues was a total game changer for keeping things on track, no joke.

faith_smith8d agoMost Upvoted

I caught a podcast a few months ago about meeting dynamics and they mentioned something called "shared visual anchors." Basically having one thing everyone looks at helps people stay on the same page way more than everyone looking at their own tiny screens. The host said even a basic handwritten flip chart works better than a projected slideshow because people can't scroll past it or ignore it. Makes sense when you think about how our brains process physical objects differently than digital ones.

alice_gonzalez961mo ago

Oh man, "unrelated plumbing issues" is SO real. That phrase hit different for me because my friend Jenna tried this exact thing last year on a community center renovation she was running. She thought just sending out a group text with the timeline would be enough but nope, people were constantly going off on tangents about their own stuff. She ended up doing what you did, @schmidt.blake, but with a big printed board she kept on an easel the whole time. She said it changed everything because she could literally tap the paper and be like "we're here, not there" without having to argue with anyone. It's wild how having something physical in the room just makes people shut up and pay attention better than a phone ever will.