It’s 50 minutes into an hour-long meeting. The final agenda item has been resolved, and it’s clear that we’ll be wrapping up early. Others may be pleased by this turn of events, but I cringe, bracing for the line that I know is coming: “I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life back!”
Please Stop Using These Phrases in Meetings
“I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life back,” and other unbearable meeting jargon.
January 11, 2022
![](/resources/images/article_assets/2022/01/Jan22_11_1142063.jpg)
Juan Moyano/Stocksy
Summary.
Some New Year’s resolutions are more attainable than others. Even at a time when so much is beyond our control, we remain in control of our own speech patterns. And so, as leaders and employees continue to rethink what the modern workplace should look like, including how we gather, perhaps it’s an opportune moment to banish certain phrases from the “meeting-speak” lexicon. To learn what refrains others would be happy to never hear again in a meeting, the author did a bit of crowdsourcing. She presents some of the responses that resonated the most.
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New!
HBR Learning
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Meeting Management Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Meeting Management. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to make your meetings matter.
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