WHEN TO USE

Use when your meetings feel checked-out, defensive, or like they could have been an email.

WHAT TO DO

Spend 15 minutes before one recurring meeting answering: what do I want people to feel in the first five minutes, not about the agenda, but about this gathering and the people in it? Design one specific opening: a genuine check-in question, an explicit statement of purpose, or a brief acknowledgment of what the team is carrying. The first signal sets the emotional conditions for everything that follows.