---
name: meeting_facilitation
description: Run meetings that start with purpose and end on time: build timeboxed agendas, triage what should be async instead, keep discussion on track with parking lots and redirection, and close with decisions, owners, and a durable decision log. Use when asked to plan, run, take notes for, or improve any meeting.
---

# Meeting Facilitation

## Purpose

Turn a meeting request into a meeting that earns its invite: it has a purpose, a timeboxed agenda, only the people it needs, and it produces decisions with named owners — or it becomes an async thread instead.

## Workflow

### 1. Triage: should this be a meeting at all?

Default to async. A meeting is warranted only if the goal needs high-bandwidth convergence: a timely decision, a genuinely complex/debatable topic, an emotionally charged conversation, or a new relationship that needs face time. Everything else — announcements, status updates, information sharing, routine check-ins, reviews/approvals, brainstorming that benefits from reflection time — goes async first.

If triage kills the meeting, say so plainly and propose the async replacement (thread, doc with a 48-hour comment window, or Loom-style video recap).

### 2. Build the agenda before anyone is invited

- **One-sentence purpose.** "Decide X" beats "Discuss X." If the purpose is only "discuss," rewrite it as a decision or an output.
- **Attendees with roles.** Tag each: facilitator, decision maker, contributor. If someone has no role and no pre-work, they don't come — they get the notes.
- **Timeboxed items, each with an owner and a type** (info / discussion / decision). Cap total time at 60 minutes unless the team opted in; give decision items the most time.
- **Pre-read attached, 24–36h ahead.** If there is no agenda in time, the facilitator cancels — a meeting with no agenda is a calendar accident.
- Start the agenda at the **decision item**, not the status round. Decisions deserve fresh attention.

Template: `references/agenda-template.md`.

### 3. Open with the contract (60 seconds)

State: the purpose, the timeboxes ("we end at :55, hard stop"), how questions work (interrupt or hold), and the parking lot rule ("off-topic-but-good items go to the parking lot, with an owner assigned by the end"). Silence means agreement.

### 4. Run the meeting

- **Start on time, never re-brief latecomers.** Starting 7 minutes late to re-explain teaches everyone to arrive 7 minutes late.
- **Keep the visible timer.** Warn at 2 minutes remaining per item. Never extend a timebox without explicit group consent.
- **Redirect with the parking lot.** Acknowledge importance, park visibly, return to the agenda. Language bank: `references/redirect-phrases.md`.
- **Drive toward the decision.** When discussion circles, restate the decision question: "The decision we need is X. Options on the table are A, B, C. What would stop us from choosing one?"
- **Watch for bike-shedding.** If the group is polishing trivial details, delegate to one person and move on.
- **End 5 minutes early.** Use the last 5 minutes for the close, not item 6.

### 5. Close with commitments

Read back: **decisions made**, **action items with one owner each and a due date**, **parked items with an owner assigned to resolve each**. Unowned items die — if nobody owns it, it wasn't important enough to write down.

Write it up within 24h using `references/meeting-notes-template.md`: what was decided, what is owned, what was deferred.

### 6. Keep a standing decision log

Decisions outlive the meeting. Append each decision to a running log (date, decision, context/why, made by, impact) so nobody re-litigates what was settled. Template: `references/decision-log.md`.

## Output Contract

When facilitating or preparing a meeting, produce:

1. **Async triage verdict** — meeting or async, with one-line justification.
2. **Agenda** — purpose sentence, attendees with roles, timeboxed items with owners and types, pre-read link, total ≤ agreed duration.
3. **Notes (within 24h)** — decisions, action items (owner + due date), parking lot with owners.
4. **Decision log entries** — one row per decision, with the *why*, not just the *what*.

## Operating Rules

1. No agenda in time → cancel the meeting. Never facilitate an agenda-less meeting.
2. Every action item has exactly one owner and one due date. "The team will" is not ownership.
3. The parking lot is a promise, not a trash can: every parked item leaves with an owner and a next step.
4. End on time, every time. Running over trains people that your timeboxes are fiction.
5. Minutes are a service to absentees: write them so someone who wasn't there can act on them.
6. Never re-litigate a logged decision in a new meeting without new information — point to the log.