Look out for loopers!

Distill the essence

Of everything you’ve covered in a meeting, conversation or workshop, what's the essence of that, up to now? This is a progress summary or snapshot of where you are.

We don’t use summaries anywhere near enough at work. As a result, we leave people hanging, wondering 'WTF is going on?'

When you tick off and make sense of chunks of discussion, you're truly making sense. We close off that part and able to move on to the next. If it's left open, unresolved, unsummarised, you can't move forward. You keep looping back until it's done.

The film 'Looper' starring Emily Blunt showed a loop in a loop of people coming back to life, to the past, to wipe others off the planet. We’re not getting that evil with sensemaking thank you, but what a great example of how you can lose track of now, the past, the present and the future because of broken loops.

Got ‘a looper’ in your meeting or workshop, someone who doesn't move on? You need to make sense quick! It’s not their fault; please try harder 😃