Most leaders you meet are losing almost a full workday every week to meetings that go nowhere. Same people. Same topics. Same problems. No real movement.

You’ve seen it in boardrooms and job trailers: different settings, but the same pattern. The problem isn’t meetings; it’s that your meetings are built for silos, not for the whole business. Everyone shows up to speak for their part, but no one is asked to hold the entire picture.

That’s where a generalist mindset helps—not a new title, but rather a new way of running the room. You treat every meeting as the place where the whole system comes together, not just a series of updates.

Here are five simple rules you can put in place this week. If you stick to them, you’ll get back hours you’re now wasting in repeat conversations. You can clean up handoffs and walk out of the room with one plan instead of six.

Rule 1: Every meeting gets one job

Most meetings try to do three or four things at once. You “update,” “brainstorm,” “decide,” and then “vent” for a while. No wonder nothing sticks.

Give every meeting one clear job. For example:
• “Decide how we will handle renewals for next quarter.”
• “Fix the delay between sales promise and delivery reality.”
• “Agree on the three messages we want customers to hear this month.”

If you hear yourself saying “and” in the purpose, you’re trying to fit too much into one hour. Split it or park the extra question for another time.

One job gives you focus. Focus gives you time back.

Rule 2: Invite roles, not just titles

Silos show up on your guest list. You invite the usual suspects by title, and you end up with a room full of people who all think the same way.

Instead, build your list by role, like this:
• Someone who lives closest to the customer
• Someone who runs the daily work
• Someone who watches risk and cost
• Someone who can tell the story to the rest of the company

Those roles might sit in four different departments. That’s the point. You want different lenses in the same room. That’s how you spot the land mines before you step on them.

Ask yourself before you send the invitation, “Which roles do we need so this decision works in the real world?” Then fill seats to match.

Rule 3: Start with the shared picture, not a status tour

Most meetings start with a long trip around the table. Each person reports from their corner. By the time the last person speaks, the first point is forgotten, or half the room has been too busy planning what they were going to say to remember the original point.

Flip that. Start with the shared picture.

Take 3–5 minutes and answer, out loud, one simple question: “What are we really trying to make true across the whole organization?”

It might be, “We want customers to feel one simple promise no matter who they talk to,” or, “We need to cut the time from idea to delivery in half.” Keep it short. Use plain language.

Once the room has the same picture in mind, the updates and ideas have a place to land. People stop fighting for their own roles and start asking, “Does this help the bigger promise or not?”

Rule 4: Take a straightforward path to decisions

We waste a lot of meeting time because no one is clear on how the decision will actually be made. So, you circle. Give your team one simple path.

Zoom out: Ask, “If we get this right, what changes for the whole system six months from now?” Listen for impact across departments, not just in one area.

Zoom in: Ask, “Given that picture, what can we actually commit to between now and Friday?”

That two-step keeps you from getting lost in theory. It respects the future and the present. You don’t need fancy language for it. You just need to use it every time.

Over time, people will show up already thinking this way. That alone will shorten your meetings.

Rule 5: Leave with cross-silo promises, not loose ideas

The last 5 minutes of a meeting are where you win back your week. Or lose it.

Don’t end with, “Good talk,” or, “Let’s circle back.” End with spoken promises that connect the silos. I like to have each person say one clear sentence:

“I will do ___ by ___ date, and I will loop in ___ so they’re ready.”

Write the questions on the screen as they speak. Make sure at least one promise in the room links two departments. That’s where you turn scattered voices into one plan.

After the meeting, send a short note with those sentences only. No novel. No slide deck. Just the promises. That’s your new scorecard.

What changes when you follow these rules

When you run meetings this way, three things happen fast:
• You stop having the same conversation three times in three different rooms.
• People start to prepare at a higher level because they know the meeting has a real job.
• You can cancel whole blocks of follow-up because the “I will” sentences do the work.

Add up the time you save across your calendar, and a full workday comes back into view.

You don’t need a new app or a new job title to be future-ready. You need to treat every meeting as a place where the whole system gets in tune: one room, many lenses, and one clear plan walking out the door.

Try these five rules for one month. Watch what happens to your schedule, your stress, and your team’s follow-through.