Five Ps by Jeff Hajek
Purpose: What's the reason for the meeting?
Participants: Who should attend the meeting?
Process: How will be the meeting concluded?
Product: What will the meeting deliver as end product?
Preparation: The leader must have an agenda and a
plan
Apply Six Sigma’s DMAIC for meetings:
Define: What’s the purpose?
Measure: Was the time well spent?
Analyze: What caused delays or confusion?
Improve: Adjust format, tools, or roles.
Control: Standardize best practices across
teams.
Guidelines for Meetings
✅ Leave if not needed: Respect others’ time—if your role is complete, it’s okay to exit gracefully.
✋ Raise hands or use chat: Promotes fairness and avoids interruptions.
� ⚖️ Moderator role: Ensures flow, time discipline, and inclusion.
🤖 AI Assistants: Use tools like Copilot to summarize, track actions, or suggest improvements.
📌 Next Steps: Always conclude with who’s doing what by when.
Meeting Etiquette Inspired by Toyota/Six Sigma/Other Sources
Respect for People: Start and end on time. Acknowledge all voices, including remote attendees. Use inclusive language and visuals
Continuous Improvement: Reflect on meeting effectiveness regularly. Rotate moderators to build facilitation skills
Efficient Time Use: Share agenda in advance. Cancel or shorten meetings if goals are met early. Use time-boxing for topics
Clear Roles & Structure: Assign a moderator, timekeeper, and note-taker. Use hand-raising or chat for orderly input
Remote Inclusivity: Use video when possible. Ensure chat and reactions are monitored. Avoid side conversations in physical rooms
Decision & Action Focus: End with clear next steps and owners. Use AI tools to summarize and track actions
Additional Points for consideration
Contact the audience 24 hours in advance with a reminder.
Respect their busy schedules but firm enough to require their attendance and participation.
For projects, you want the team members to PARTICIPATE. Remind them of this expectation as part of being selected on the team.
Email an agenda (this can also be the reminder).
Share the meeting ground rules prior to starting the meetings. Such as no cell phones, hold questions until the end, etc.
Arrive to your meeting 10-15 minutes early.
Start the meeting on-time. You may elect to start slowly or with small delay if people are arriving late.
Ensure everyone is on mute to avoid background noises.
Avoid interrupting. If others begin to interrupt each other, find a time to intervene and direct who can speak.
Try to stick to facts and support your thoughts with facts but communicate only relevant data and information. Keep it simple.
Be concise. Speak clearly with a fluid pace…avoid “ahh”, “like”, "umm", and other filler words.
Challenge ideas or topics, not the person.
Respect the opinions of others. You can disagree without being disagreeable.
Keep meeting to under one hour. Any longer tends to lose their attention. If the meeting must be longer than an hour, plan for breaks.
For longer meetings it may be a good idea to take a break in the middle or change the speaker to provide a different voice.
Summarize key points and actions at the end.
Don't read the words directly from the slides. Add some "color" to the points, examples, or real experiences.
Follow up with the audience with a summary and any action items.
Body language is a whole other art. Practice this too if you're standing in front of a group or whether on a video meeting.
Maintain eye contact.